Satanic Temple Sues Pennsylvania School District After “Satan Club” Gets Denied
The Satanic Temple is suing a Pennsylvania school board after their petition to begin an “After School Satan Club” was voted down last week.
The Satanic Temple’s general counsel, Mathew Kezhaya, said the lawsuit will determine whether the Northern York County board discriminated against the Satanic Temple by allowing some after-school clubs but not the temple’s.
Kezhaya claims that school officials made statements suggesting that if the club had removed “Satan” from its name, it would increase its chances of being approved.
“When the government opens up a place where expressive activity takes place, there are rules that must be followed,” Kezhaya said. “They can’t say, ‘We’re going to have only religious groups, or only secular groups, or religious groups but only if they are not popular, or are popular’. They can’t have language groups, but then refuse to allow someone to teach Arabic.”
“I can’t emphasize enough how far outside the authority of the school board it was, to even pretend our first Amendment Rights were subject to their vote at all,” Lucien Greaves, co-founder of the Satanic Temple said. “I’m appalled they made a public spectacle of a basic request for facilities access.”
Litigation could take 18 months to two years or even longer if the case makes it to the Supreme Court.