Satanic Temple plans ‘After School Satan Club’ at Memphis elementary school
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - The Satanic Temple, an organization based out of Massachusetts, is planning an “After School Satan Club” at a Memphis elementary school.
The group made the announcement that the club will launch on January 10 at Chimneyrock Elementary School, the first of its kind in the State of Tennessee.
The Satanic Temple’s flyer explicitly states that event is not endorsed nor sponsored by Memphis-Shelby County Schools.
MSCS provided this statement on the club:
The organization points out there’s a Christian club at Chimneyrock Elementary School, and legally, they have every right to have a club at the school after hours.
But some of the parents and grandparents tell Action News 5, they still have lots of questions.
“I think it’s B.S.,” said parent Courtney Dennis. “I think it needs to be held somewhere else and not a school.”
“We don’t go to a school unless there is another religious club operating,” said June Everett, the national campaign director for “After School Satan Club” for The Satanic Temple.
She says Chimneyrock parents reached out to them about bringing the after-hours club to the school.
Everett says a 2001 Supreme Court ruling gives them and The Good News Club, which is a “Bible club” sponsored by Child Evangelism Fellowship, the right to be at the K through 5 school.
“I’m about to come unglued right now,” said grandparent Jenny Kincaid. “I cannot believe – this is a kindergarten through fifth-grade school, and they’re letting a Satanic club come in here?”
Everett says The Satanic Temple does not believe in literal or supernatural Satan and is separate from the Church of Satan.
Despite the name, The Satanic Temple’s mission states that they do not attempt to convert children to any religious ideology.
“The Satanic Temple is a non-theistic religion that views Satan as a literary figure who represents a metaphorical construct of rejecting tyranny and championing the human mind and spirit,” their website reads.
But parents still have questions about what the club will do.
“It’s going to be where our children are,” said grandparent Tonya Vester. “We should have had some earlier notification. A chance to say, maybe this is not something the parents here would like.”
Everett tells us typical activities are science and arts and crafts-oriented.
She says they also do community projects.
Chimneyrock will be The Satanic Temple’s fifth active club in the country announced this year.
“I like to believe that people that don’t agree with us and don’t believe we should be allowed equal access into the same schools that these other clubs are renting, that this is a reminder of what a great a free country that we live in,” said Everett. “It’s the First Amendment at work.”
Permission slips are not being sent home with students, but they do have one to participate.
The after-school club is set to launch January 10, 2024.
A “permission slip” is available for parents to sign by clicking here.
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