After School Satan Club Coming To Virginia Elementary School

CHESAPEAKE, VA — An After School Satan Club — which organizers say will teach kids empathy, critical thinking, personal sovereignty and compassion — is slated to kick off next week at an elementary school in Virginia.

The new club's first meeting will be held on Dec. 15 at B.M. Williams Primary School, located at 1100 N. Battlefield Blvd. in Chesapeake, according to a flyer shared by The Satanic Temple. Subsequent meetings will be held monthly through May.

"The Satanic Temple is a non-theistic religion that views Satan as a literary figure who represents a metaphorical construct of rejecting tyranny and championing the human mind and spirit," the flyer reads. "After School Satan Club does not attempt to convert children to any religious ideology. Instead, the Satanic Temple supports children to think for themselves."

According to the flyer, kids will participate in science and community service projects, puzzles and games, crafts, and nature activities.

In a statement provided to parents and obtained by Fox 5 DC, Chesapeake Public Schools Superintendent Jared Cotton said the district approved a building-use request from the club to host gatherings after school hours. He also said the district has policies and procedures in place that allow community groups to use publicly funded facilities outside of the school day.

Some parents aren't happy with the club's formation.

"But now, it's OK to have devil worshipping in school around impressionable minds and age," mom Melanie Ballard told WTKR in Norfolk. "Children absorb everything they see and hear and they model what they see adults do."

Club campaign director June Everett told WTKR the club is not about "fire and brimstone."

"A lot of the activities are based on community projects or different kinds of crafts that you can share with families or friends. They can color in a book or make a friendship bracelet," Everett said.

On Monday, a prayer group gathered outside B.M. Williams to protest the club, according to a separate WTKR report. Group leader Steve Scheerbaum told the station he and others in the group were unhappy about the club's formation.

"This is highly offensive to Catholic sensibility," Scheerbaum said. "The only thing I could really compare it to, to somebody who wouldn't understand why we are outraged, it would be roughly the equivalent if like a bunch of Black students were at the school and they have an after-school KKK club, a bunch of Jewish students were at the school, and they have an after-school Nazi club."

In April, a Pennsylvania school board voted overwhelmingly to deny the formation of an After School Satan Club. The 8-1 vote caught the attention of the Satanic Temple, whose leader said legal action would likely be taken against the district.

In response to backlash received when an After School Satan Club formed in Illinois, the co-founder of The Satanic Temple said because the word "Satan" is attached to the name, people often misconstrue the organization’s mission.

"I know a lot of people automatically assume we’re doing this for prankster purposes," Lucien Greaves told Patch in January. "But after a while, and hopefully not after a long while, the label (Satanist) just doesn't mean as much at all as to what is actually taking place in practice."