Community members in a Tennessee school district want to banish Satan from their children’s halls after the formation of a new club was announced.
The After School Satan Club (ASSC) wants to establish a branch in Chimneyrock elementary school in the Memphis-Shelby county schools (MSCS) district.
The ASSC is a federally recognized non-profit organization and national after-school program with local chapters across the US. The club is associated with the Satanic Temple, though it claims it is secular and “promotes self-directed education by supporting the intellectual and creative interests of students”.
The Satanic Temple makes it clear its members do not actually worship the devil or believe in the existence of Satan or the supernatural. Instead Satan is used as a symbol of free will, humanism and anti-authoritarianism.
Satanic after-school clubs are usually established in a school district in response to the presence of religious clubs, such as the Christian evangelical Bible group the Good News Club. The temple says it “does not believe in introducing religion into public schools and will only open a club if other religious groups are operating on campus”.
But parents and faith leaders in the Tennessee community members expressed outrage at the news.
In a meeting with more than 40 pastors and other religious leaders, the district board chair, Althea E Greene, said: “Satan has no room in this district.”
Jenny Kincaid, a grandparent of a student at Chimneyrock, told the local Memphis news station Action News 5: “I’m about to come unglued right now. I cannot believe … this is a kindergarten-through-fifth-grade school and they’re letting a satanic club come in here?”
The MSCS interim superintendent, Toni Williams, reportedly said there were no plans to prevent the club from operating in the district.
“I do not support the beliefs of this organization at the center of recent headlines,” Williams said. “I do, however, support the law.”
Chimneyrock would be the club’s fifth chapter in the country.
Other school districts have also pushed back against the club’s presence on their campus in the past. In March, the Satanic Temple took legal action against Pennsylvania’s Saucon Valley school district for allegedly discriminating against the ASSC by preventing it from holding meetings on campus and using school facilities. In November, the district settled with the temple for $200,000.
June Everett, ASSC’s national campaign director, said in response to the reaction of the Chimneyrock community members: “I’d like to believe that people that don’t agree with us and don’t think that we should be allowed equal access into the same schools that these other clubs are running, that this is a reminder of what a great and free country that we live in.
“It’s the first amendment at work.”
