MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A group of Memphis pastors gathered outside the public elementary school set to host the highly controversial "After School Satan Club" Thursday to pray for the school and its students two weeks before the club is expected to start.
Rev. Walter Womack of the Memphis Southern Christian Leadership Conference said he and the other pastors are concerned the club could grow and gather at other Memphis-Shelby County Schools. The Satanic Temple announced they would be starting the After School Satan Club at Chimneyrock Elementary School, a public school and the first in Tennessee to have such a club.
"We adhere to their first amendment rights and we know what the schoool board has said but we join with the other clergy in opposition to this school being open," Womack said.
The demonstration came after news earlier in the week that the Uvalde Foundation for Kids cancelled a planned protest against the group, due to threats.
Controversy over the After School Satan Club
The club told ABC24 earlier in December its first meeting was supposed to be Dec. 13, 2023, but after some conversation with the district over whether they should have to pay for space, the club pushed its first meeting back about a month to Jan. 10, 2024.
The Satanic Temple said it doesn’t teach anything about Satan to kids in the club, but instead focuses on projects for the community. Regardless, parents are frustrated.
The first time several parents heard about the club was on social media, not from the school.
“I was floored,” Chimneyrock grandparent Tonya Vester said. “I was floored by hearing about that.”
Many parents first heard about After School Satan Club while scrolling through Facebook.
“My grandson showed me this earlier; he’d seen something on Facebook,” Chimneyrock grandparent Jenny Kincaid said. “I thought it was a joke, and I didn’t believe it.”
MSCS Interim Superintendent Toni Williams was passionate in her stance against the After School Satan Club renting space at Chimneyrock.
"I do not support the beliefs of this organization at the center of these recent headlines. I do, however, support the law. As the Superintendent, I am duty-bound to uphold our board policy, state laws and the constitution," said Williams.
Two MSCS Board Members, including District 5’s Mauricio Calvo, are also against the program.
"These are very young children. And they are being used for a political agenda or some kind of agenda that has no place in our schools,” said Calvo.
Parents across the city were outraged when they saw they heard about the club and questioned why the district and school allowed them to rent the space.
MSCS General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer, Odell Horton Jr., said the Satanic Temple is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and it followed the correct protocol through the district’s Facilitron system.
"The district does not discriminate against any legitimate non-profit group based on religion or beliefs. This entity also falls within our policy that it's able to rent space,” said Horton.
June Everett with the After School Satan Club said their goal is not to convert children to Satanism. Instead, she said they teach the student science, critical thinking, creative arts and good works for the community.
“We do a lot of community projects. We do a lot of STEAM-type activities. Science based activities. And at the end of the day, we have decided not to teach about Satan,” said Everett.
MSCS said children will have to turn in a signed permission slip to join the After School Satan Club. The district also adds that flyers will not be handed out or posted on campus or on the school’s social media pages.