A Pennsylvania school district will allow the Satanic Temple to hold a student event at its high school this fall, despite massive opposition from parents and community members.
Breitbart reports the Northern York County School Board approved the “After School Satan Club” back-to-school event last week. The event will take place after school hours in September at the Northern High School in Dillsburg, southern Pennsylvania.
The Satanic Temple is a pro-abortion advocacy group that considers the killing of unborn babies in abortions to be a religious “ritual.” Now, it is trying to establish children’s clubs in public schools across the country.
Fox 43 reports the Dillsburg school board did reject another request in April to establish an After School Satan Club in schools in response to widespread outrage. However, the threat of a lawsuit appears to be what prompted it to approve the upcoming event.
In a statement, Superintendent Steve Kirkpatrick said the board was required to approve the request, and the Satanic Temple will pay rental, custodial, security and technology fees to use the facility.
ACTION ALERT: Complain to the school board by going here.
“As a public school district, the use of our school facilities must be permitted without discrimination,” Kirkpatrick said. “We cannot and do not arbitrarily pick and choose which organizations may or may not use our facilities. If we allow one organization, we must allow all organizations, provided they satisfy the conditions and application requirements as set forth in Policy 707.”
Kirkpatrick said they do not endorse the activity.
A Satanic Temple spokesperson defended the event, while hinting that they could have sued the district for violating their First Amendment rights if it had refused their request.
“We’re talking about upholding fundamental pillars of democracy and the First Amendment,” said Lucien Greaves, a co-founder of the group.
According to Fox 43, Greaves pointed to another event that the Northern York school board approved earlier this summer, a Christian prayer night hosted by the Dillsburg Community Worship and Prayer.
“We don’t decry or begrudge anybody having a prayer event or anything like that,” Greaves said. “It does become a problem, a serious problem, when you allow a back-to-school prayer event, but you don’t allow any other religious representation.”
Parents across the country have been urging school officials to reject the Satanic clubs. In January, The Belleville News-Democrat reported about Illinois parents’ opposition to one such club for elementary students at Jane Addams Elementary School in Moline.
A club flyer posted online welcomed children in first through fifth grades to the “After School Satan Club” for fun and games, arts and crafts, and nature activities. The Satanic Temple says the club will teach children about “critical thinking, benevolence, empathy, problem solving, creative expression and personal sovereignty.” It claims its club will not attempt to convert children, and its goal is to encourage children to think for themselves.
The Satanic Temple is deeply involved in abortion advocacy, and Breitbart once described its work as a “pro-abortion crusade to come to the aid of America’s largest abortion provider,” Planned Parenthood.
The group has filed multiple lawsuits in different states to overturn pro-life laws, though its attempts thus far have failed. Many of its lawsuits challenge state informed consent laws that require abortion facilities to provide basic information about abortion risks, an unborn baby’s development and alternatives to abortion to mothers prior to the abortion.
The Satanic Temple claims that an abortion is a “religious right” as well as a “ritual” that it likens to communion or baptism for Christians. In 2020, it even raffled off an abortion to raise money for its lawsuits.
Some of its members also attempt to intimidate peaceful pro-life sidewalk counselors through gruesome protests. In 2016, pro-life advocates outside of a Detroit, Michigan Planned Parenthood faced a disturbing scene when a group from the Satanic Temple arrived to counter-protest wearing baby masks and carrying whips. They held a similar protest on Good Friday in 2017.
Newsweek reports several former Satanic Temple members recently accused leaders of sexual harassment, questionable financial dealings, anti-Semitic remarks and ties to neo-Nazis.
By Micaiah Bilger