After School Satan is an after school program project of The Satanic Temple (TST), a non-theisticUnited States organization based in Salem, Massachusetts,[2] and is sponsored by Reason Alliance LTD, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.[3] It was created as an alternative to Christian-based after-school groups, specifically at schools that host the evangelical Good News Club.[4][5][6] TST only starts a club when it is requested by a parent at a school where the Good News Club or similar organization is already operating.
"We're like vampires," said June Everett, After School Satan Club Campaign Director. "We only go where we're invited."[7] The program neither teaches about Satanism nor attempts to convert club-goers; it instead teaches about rationalism and scientific discovery. It is against the beliefs of the Satanic Temple to teach religious practice in schools. The Satanic Temple rejects supernatural beliefs and views Satan as a literary symbol of rebellion against authority, not as a supernatural entity.[8]
History
In 2016, TST announced it was pursuing After School Satan Clubs in select cities where TST had congregations, including Atlanta, Los Angeles, Pensacola, Tucson, Tacoma, Portland, Washington, D.C., Springfield, Missouri; and Taylorsville, Utah.[6][9][10][11] Eventually, three clubs were formed, in Tacoma, Portland, and Taylorsville.[12][13][14][15] According to Lilith Starr, founder of TST's Seattle chapter, the clubs struggled with funding issues and with finding volunteers. By the fall of 2017, former ASSC Campaign Director Chalice Blythe confirmed in an interview there were no active clubs.[16][17][18][19]
Activities during a meeting of the After School Satan Club in Moline, Illinois, which featured an interactive electricity demonstration, chemistry experiments, and crafting animal puppets.
In January 2022, ASSC began anew with the launching of three clubs, starting with one in Moline, Illinois. After meeting for two school years, the club received pushback from the Moline-Coal Valley Board of Education, which attempted to move the group off campus while allowing the Good News Club to remain. After four months of negotiations, it was agreed that the ASSC would stay on the elementary school campus where it had held its previous meetings.[20] The club is now in its fifth year, has added a summer session,[21] and runs year-round. The club focuses on science experiments, arts and crafts projects, and learning games. [22]
Blythe explained that during the initial running of the clubs during the 2016-17 school year, "The After School Satan Club curriculum was only offered in school districts where local chapters of The Satanic Temple could manage and maintain them."[23] With the 2022 relaunching, clubs were no longer overseen by TST congregation leaders, but by school parents.
Volunteers with the San Clemente, California, After School Satan Club celebrate the club's opening day in February of 2024.
During the January 2022 relaunch, besides clubs in Moline, Eaton, and Lebanon, Ohio, TST attempted to start a club in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania. The Northern York School Board denied this request [38], in part because the Christian club that operated at a district elementary school met off campus during school hours, not on campus after dismissal, which ASSC wished to do. TST responded in the fall of 2022 by opening the Hellion Academy of Independent Learning (HAIL).[39] It is identical to the ASSC except that it meets off-site during school hours. TST hosts HAIL groups in: Dillsburg; Bristol, Tennessee; and Marysville, Ohio. [40] TST also supports student-run High School Satan Clubs in Olathe, Kansas and Michigan City, Indiana.[41]
In 2024, The Satanic Temple began partnering with the Secular Student Alliance, an organization that promotes secular values among students, and which has lent its support to After School Satan Clubs.[42]
Activities
Most club meetings feature a guest presenter who gives an interactive lesson in their area of expertise. Presenters have included electricians, geologists, zoologists, social workers, authors, and crocheters.
Images from the summer session of the After School Satan Club in Binghamton, New York.
Besides the interactive lesson, children choose a science experiment or art project to complete. Science projects have included making operational miniature windmills, creating artificial snow, completing electronic circuits, and planting and watering seeds to see how they grow throughout the year. Sample art projects have included assembling a snow globe, making a birdhouse, fashioning an animal puppet, and painting friendship rocks. [43]
During the summer session, clubgoers meet at an area business or non-profit for such activities as pottery making, stargazing, and playing board games with nursing home residents.
One-time events
Besides hosting meetings during the school year and at summer sessions, ASSC has held sporadic one-time events. These have included: A back-to-school night in Lancaster, California[44]; a back-to-school night and fundraiser in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania [45]; and a family movie night in Lynchburg, Virginia. [46]
Legal issues
In February 2023, TST and the Virginia ACLU reached an agreement with Chesapeake Public Schools that required the district to permit an After School Satan Club to meet at B.M. Williams Primary School. The agreement forbade the school district from charging the club security fees not charged to other organizations, mandated the refund of illegally imposed charges, and required board policy be revised to ensure that all requesting organizations were treated equally.[47]
In November 2023, The Satanic Temple reached a settlement with the Saucon Valley School District in Hellertown, Pennsylvania, after district officials forbade the ASSC from meeting on school grounds. The settlement came half a year after a federal court ordered the school district to allow the ASSC to hold meetings at the Saucon Valley Middle School and required the district to pay $200,000 in attorney's fees.[48]
In July 2024, The Satanic Temple and the Freedom From Religion Foundation reached a settlement with Memphis-Shelby County Schools to recoup more than $15,000 in fees that had been charged to ASSC and to no other club. The agreement also required the district to provide ASSC with equal access and treatment, and to hold no further press conferences about the club.[49]
Supreme Court ruling
The Supreme Court decision Good News Club v. Milford Central School held that when a government operates a "limited public forum" it may not discriminate against speech that takes place within that forum on the basis of the viewpoint it expresses. The "limited public forum" in the case was referring to after school programs, that the schools provided space for, but were not run by the school.[50]
Students with the Hellion Academy of Independent Learning in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, assemble miniature electronics and make bookmarks during a group meeting.
After School Satan was created by The Satanic Temple in July 2016 to ensure that equal representation for all religions is upheld in public schools, and religious freedom and plurality is respected. Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that religious groups are permitted to establish clubs to proselytize after hours using public school classrooms, the Christian-based Good News Club has established thousands of such clubs. In response, The Satanic Temple began a campaign to establish its own clubs across the United States. According to one organizer, "Whenever religion enters the public sphere, like the Good News Club at public schools, we take action to ensure that more than one religious voice is represented, and that is our intent with the After School Satan Club."[1][5]
Club philosophy
The clubs strive to provide students with the critical thinking skills necessary to be able to make important life decisions for themselves. They emphasize a scientific and rationalist, non-superstitious world view, and oppose indoctrination into other-worldly belief systems.[5][4]
According to The Satanic Temple and After School Satan's co-founder and spokesperson, Lucien Greaves:
It’s critical that children understand that there are multiple perspectives on all issues, and that they have a choice in how they think... "Satan" is just a "metaphorical construct" intended to represent the rejection of all forms of tyranny over the human mind.[51]
and adds
We are only doing this because Good News Clubs have created a need for this. If Good News Clubs would operate in churches rather than public schools, that need would disappear. But our point is that if you let one religion into the public schools you have to let others, otherwise it’s an establishment of religion.[52]
After School Satan Clubs "incorporate games, projects, and thinking exercises that help children understand how we know what we know about our world and our universe."[4][53] Satanic Temple spokesman Finn Rezz said the club focuses "on science and rational thinking," promoting "benevolence and empathy for everybody" – while providing an alternative voice to the Bible-centred "Good News Club".[54] After School Satan Clubs do not teach children to believe in supernatural beings named Satan or perform Satanic rituals.[52]
CEF response
For their part, Child Evangelism Fellowship personnel have said they welcome the Temple and urge school administrators to approve After School Satan clubs to "call their bluff" since the clubs often falter and peter out on their own while also boosting the Good News Clubs.[55] Moises Esteves, executive director of CEF, told the Christian Broadcasting Network in December 2023:
As a matter of fact, sometimes it does the opposite [of shutting our clubs up] because Christians that are not aware about the work we do in the public schools they’re not aware of child evangelism Fellowship, they go, "Hey we like what you guys are doing. Can we help?" So it helps us have more clubs.[56]
In response to a follow up question, Esteves further explained,
So [The Satanic Temple runs] to the media. Part of their strategy is to make a big scary splash, right? Well, when the media jumps into the story, then they want to hear the other side. They want to hear our side. So they come and ask questions and so on."[57]
A group of Christian pastors and other religious leaders met in Tacoma to discuss the proposition that the After School Satan program would be allowed at a local school. One pastor remarked, "We want to cut this off and defeat it before it ever gets a chance to take root." Another pastor commented, "We are the taxpayers here and we ought to stand up and let them know they are not welcome, they don't pay taxes here."[58]
↑ JudicialWatch.org, Invoice for December 2016 to June 2017 indicates seven monthly two-hour room rent and utilities amounted to a cost of $154.00, with the official requestor group "Reason Alliance Ltd" and funds provided by Reason Alliance Ltd. (PDF, pages 3-14)
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