The Satanic Temple files lawsuit after school board blocks program’s creation

YORK, Pa. — Days after a Pennsylvania school district denied a request to form an After School Satan Club, The Satanic Temple is moving to file a lawsuit challenging the decision in court.

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The general council for The Satanic Temple told WHP-TV that the suit will be filed against Northern Elementary School in York, saying that the school board was discriminating by not allowing the club.

The Northern York School Board voted unanimously April 19 to deny the request to create the After School Satan Club, which has four clubs in the U.S. with chapters in Indiana and Ohio, as we previously reported. The mother who proposed the group’s formation had said the club would be an alternative to the Joy El Christian club that offers off-campus, faith-based activities during the school day.

Members of the Catholic organization American Society for Defense of Tradition, Family and Property gathered outside the school Monday to show support for the school board’s decision, WHTM reported. “They are suing the school to try and get the club in,” John Ritchie, who was with TFP, told WHTM. “They promote things that are diametrically opposed to the values that America stands for, and at any level, Satan has no rights in America.”

According to The Satanic Temple’s website, “Proselytization is not our goal, and we’re not interested in converting children to Satanism. After School Satan Clubs will focus on free inquiry and rationalism, the scientific basis for which we know what we know about the world around us.”

Matthew Kezhaya, the general counsel representing The Satanic Temple, told WHP-TV that each process of the lawsuit could take 18 months to two years to complete, or even longer. Kezhaya told the station that the school’s move to block the club’s creation is a violation of the First Amendment.

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