TIVERTON — The two guys in bunny suits kept their distance.

Peter Rabbit posed for photos with smiling children inside Tiverton Middle School yesterday. And a hoppity-hop down the road, an Easter Bunny waged a protest from a street corner, with a black suitcase that symbolized he’d been sent packing. He accepted car honks.

James Parrillo, 5, of Westport, is excited to see Peter Rabbit at the craft show yesterday at Tiverton Middle School. Proceeds from the crafts will go to finance a woodcrafting class at the school.

The Providence Journal / Frieda Squires

No protest erupted yesterday over the Tiverton schools superintendent’s decision that the word “Easter” could not be used at the middle school crafts fair, which meant photo opportunities for children were with Peter Rabbit instead of the Easter Bunny. That had prompted criticism Friday from the Catholic League president in New York and sparked much debate, including on talk radio.

No national media appeared to have crashed the crafts fair, where the bunny had been a secondary draw meant to keep little ones content while their parents shopped for items such as hand-crafted wooden bowls and lavender soap, their cash going to fundraising causes.

Ben Martins, 14, is a Tiverton High School freshman. At 9 a.m. yesterday he suited up in the gray Peter Rabbit fur with white highlights for the first time. He did not feel like an object of controversy, he said. Rather, he felt a little warm inside the suit.

Whichever bunny he happened to be, he said, it was about giving children something fun.

And his challenges had nothing to do with free speech or separation of church and state.

“When I have to use the stairs and stuff, I have to look through the mouth” of the rabbit costume, Ben explained. He also had a local television cameraman trailing him for part of the day.

Peter Rabbit mingled with families who browsed at crafts tables. Other times, he took a central seat on the stage and welcomed young visitors. He said that when some youngsters asked if he was the Easter Bunny, he said that no he was Peter Rabbit.

Sherry Kourtesis of the Parents Teacher Council said she was glad that there could at least be a rabbit for the event, that the idea was not simply prohibited.

Kourtesis went to Kolby Rental in Somerset in search of the rabbit suit. The choices were white or gray. She picked gray and decided not to take the vest that came with it, which seemed to have more of an Easter look.

“I actually picked up a blue vest from the Salvation Army to make it look more like Peter Rabbit,” she said.

Talk with Kourtesis, the people displaying their wares and other event organizers, and the debate over symbols and what they mean seemed far removed from the meaning of a small-town craft fair yesterday.

“In our mind, it’s not about that, it’s about the kids,” said Patricia Aull, the middle school principal.

Money raised will help sustain classes in woodcrafting, something the district budget can’t cover.

Another table sold key chains and little decorative hearts to raise money for a fifth grader’s medical bills. She has leukemia.

More than two hours into yesterday’s daylong fair, a woman outside the school asked, Rhode Island style, “Hey, are you a news guy?” She offered a wrinkle: the Easter Bunny had arrived.

The Easter Bunny set up camp on Bulgarmarsh Road where it meets Quintal Road, the driveway to the middle school. He had decided it was time to take a stand.

He held a sign up that asked passing motorists: “Who is Peter Rabbit?”

A few feet away, a black suitcase bore a message: “Easter Bunny needs work.”

Some drivers beeped horns and a few passengers appeared to hold up cell phones to take pictures of the roadside Easter Bunny.

The bunny suit was white, with a multi-colored vest and a bow tie measured in feet, not inches. Its ears seemed shorter than those of the Peter Rabbit, who also seemed to have a height advantage. The suit was a rental from Fall River’s Wonderland Costumes.

The man beneath the Easter Bunny suit refused to reveal his identity. He is in his early 50s, lives in Tiverton and owns a construction business, according to him and his girlfriend, who handed him signs to hold up.

The couple came out yesterday because they believe the Easter Bunny is tradition, not to assert any religious belief.

“Instead of candy,” the guy in the Easter Bunny suit said, “we’ll put some common sense in the basket this year.”