(OPINION) The Satanic Temple’s After School Club at Paonia K-8 in Colorado held its first meeting on Monday after a parent requested the club for her son.
According to WND, The club is the first of its kind in the state and was initially announced on Feb. 21 on TST’s Twitter account, according to The74. The club’s first meeting was held on Monday and was initially requested by a parent who complained that other students had allegedly told her child that he would “burn in hell” because his family was agnostic.
June Everett, TST campaign director for the After School Satan Club program and ordained minister of The Satanic Temple, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the first meeting was a great success.
ASSC is ready for Spring in Colorado! TST proudly announces a NEW After School Satan Club launching at Paonia K-8 in Paonia, CO!
For more information: https://t.co/naztHmCjpR
To sign up your local student: https://t.co/kpxFIgYTi3
To support ASSC: https://t.co/RoA7hqQAOL pic.twitter.com/WbP2cbi9Jg— The Satanic Temple (@satanic_temple_) February 21, 2023
“We had 7 children in attendance, and you could hear the laughter from clear down the hall coming from the room,” Everett said. “The school principal was welcoming and very professional, there were no protestors on site, and we all had a great time.
We played games, did some coloring projects, and made bookmarks!” In a flyer for the meeting on TST’s Twitter account, it says that the club does not try to convert students to “any religious ideology.”
However, TST has stated in the past that its clubs are designed to be a direct response to any religious after-school clubs, and Everett told the DCNF that a parent must request the club before they will approach a school.
“ASSC does not go to schools without a parent or guardian request, and ASSC does not go to schools that do not have another religious club operating after hours,” Everett said.
Many religious groups have denounced the clubs, some arguing that Satanism is the “antithesis of religion” and called on parents to “wake up” to what is going on in their children’s schools. While TST has said that it only wants to be on “equal footing” with religious groups, some religious advocacy organizations claim that interpretation “undermines the credibility of religion.”
