- Students at a Virginia elementary school attended their first after school Satan Club meeting on Thursday.
- The club is sponsored by The Satanic Temple.
- The ACLU called it "a victory for free speech and religious liberty."
The meeting at B.M. Williams Primary School in Chesapeake, Virginia was held "despite efforts by some to shut down the club and prevent it from gaining equal access to school facilities," the ACLU said, describing it as "a victory for free speech and religious liberty."
The Virginia Pilot reported last fall that the idea of the club was requested by parents as a response to the Good News Club, another student club run by the Child Evangelism Fellowship. According to the Pilot, parents wanted the club, which is sponsored by The Satanic Temple, for their nontheistic children.
June Everett, the After-School Satan Club national campaign director previously told the Pilot that the club only operates in schools where parents request them and other religious groups are already operating.
The group said students in the club will do arts and crafts, puzzles, an science projects.
"We aren't sacrificing goats or praising the Dark Lord," Everett told the Pilot.
The ACLU said the club faced "unconstitutional challenges" over the past few months. While the Good News Club was able to meet immediately after school and did not face a "security fee," the ACLU said Chesapeake Public Schools initially requested The Satanic Temple pay a security fee over safety concerns from protestors. Additionally, the school system asked the group to meet at 6 p.m. and not immediately after school.
Those requests were withdrawn before Thursdays first meeting.
"Under the First Amendment, the government can't treat one religious group less favorably than another, and it can't give potential objectors or hecklers a 'veto' over unpopular speech by charging the speaker (here, the After-School Satan Club) a security fee," Matthew Callahan, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Virginia said. "That the school district ultimately recognized this and is taking steps to correct these unlawful actions and policies is an enormous victory for free speech, religious liberty, and democracy."
