RALEIGH — An announcement on Facebook by the Friends of the Satanic Temple of NC regarding a so-called afterschool Satan Club to be held at a Guilford County Public Schools elementary went viral and received public pushback.
The Facebook post included the statement “Hail Satan, Hail ASSC, Hail NC, and Hail Yourselves!” it also included an announcement from the group’s Director June Everett that reads “Exciting News! After School Satan Club will be launching at Joyner Elementary School in Greensboro, North Carolina on April 29th 2022!”
Comments on the post included some praise but main themes included multiple comments saying “What the hell” and calling the club “sick.” Some comments drew attention to the group’s other activities like a “menstrual supplies” drive called “Menstruatin’ with Satan,” as well as promotion of LGBT events such as the “Trans Day of Visibility.”
“God save these children,” wrote one commenter, to which the page administrator replied, “Save them from what? Arts and crafts and educational activities?”
The event posting included a link to a flier that described the club as engaging in “science projects, puzzles and games, craft projects, and nature activities.”
The flier includes a student permission slip and claims that the Satanic Temple is a “non-theistic religion that views Satan as a mythical figure representing individual freedom.” The flier also claims the club does not try to convert children to any religious ideology, but to “teach children to think for themselves.”
North State Journal reached out to Guilford County Schools and the district’s Chief of Staff Dr. Rebecca Kaye said that “The request for use of facility is not approved at this time.”
“GCS is currently reviewing with its legal counsel how fliers for non-school sponsored clubs and events are distributed, as well as the district’s obligation to grant organizations equitable access to our public facilities,” Kaye wrote in an email response.
Another Facebook post by Friends of the Satanic Temple of NC compared their event to an event by a Christian group called “Good News Club” which was rejected by the district. The North Carolina branch of the Satanic Temple admitted in a separate Facebook post that they target locations where “Good News Club” has been permitted to operate.
The attempt to hold and Afterschool Satan Club in a Guilford County elementary schools seems to be part of a nationwide campaign by the Satanic Temple, but the effort has been going on for almost eight years, according to 2016 reports by the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.
Earlier this year, a school district in Illinois defended allowing an Afterschool Satan Club to be held at Jane Addams Elementary School in Moline.
This past month, the Satanic Temple filed a lawsuit on constitutional grounds against Northern Elementary School in York, Pennsylvania, after the school board there voted 8-1 not to allow the club to hold meetings at the school.
