'Satan has no room in this district.' Memphis leaders denounce 'After School Satan Club'

On Wednesday afternoon, Memphis-Shelby County Schools interim superintendent Toni Williams, board chair and local pastor Althea Greene, board member Mauricio Calvo, and roughly 40 members of the local faith community came together to make something abundantly clear: they don’t endorse the “After School Satan Club” that’s slated to be held in one of the district’s elementary schools next month.

“You see the faith-based community standing here,” said Greene, who wore a clerical collar. “We're going to stand up and we're going to be vocal. Satan has no room in this district.”

On Jan. 10, The Satanic Temple is planning to host an “After School Satan Club” in Chimneyrock Elementary’s library, which is expected to offer science projects, community service projects, puzzles and games, natural activities, arts and crafts, and snacks in the Cordova school. Because the Massachusetts-based group is technically a non-profit, MSCS appears to be legally obligated to rent out the space to it after school hours, just as it would lend it to any other organization recognized by the IRS as a public charity.

District leaders understand this and have made it clear that they will uphold the law. But as Williams, Greene, and Calvo stood with a legion of local pastors on Wednesday, they criticized the event, questioned The Satanic Temple's intentions, made it clear that students would need signed permission slips to attend, and expressed support for religious organizations that have partnered with MSCS.

The Satanic Temple claims that its after-school clubs offer a “scientific, rationalist, non-superstitious worldview.” The organization has said its members do not worship or believe in Satan, but rather view him as a literary figure who rejects tyranny, and it only places the club in schools where other religious organizations already have a presence. Since the announcement of the event at Chimneyrock, Williams said, people have demanded that the district ban all faith-based organizations from schools.

But this, she asserted, isn’t going to happen.

“As a superintendent, I am duty bound to uphold our board policy, state laws, and the constitution,” she said during the event. “But let’s not be fooled. Let’s not be fooled by what we’ve seen in the past 24 hours, which is an agenda, initiated to make sure that we cancel all faith-based organizations that partner with our district.”

About 80 MSCS schools have partnerships with faith-based organizations, and according to Williams, they host events for teachers, buy winter coats for students, and offer social and emotional support amid periods of grief and neighborhood violence. Some, she noted, have planted gardens. Axing their partnerships with schools, she claimed, “penalizes thousands of children, feeds the fear, and bends to outsiders and their agendas.”

More: An After School Satan Club is coming to Memphis but who are the groups behind it? What we know.

Calvo, who represents the Cordova area on the board, used the word “agenda” too, implying that The Satanic Temple does not have the best interest of students in mind.

“I understand that the law,” he said. “But I also understand that these are children. These are very young children, and they’re being used for a political agenda ― or some kind of agenda ― that has no place in our schools.”

Calvo also emphasized that he’s still looking into legal ways to address the situation.

“I don’t want to make a false promise and tell you that this is going to change tomorrow… But we’re going to continue to talk to other people. I reached out to folks in Nashville yesterday. We’re working with the attorney general’s office. And we may arrive to the very same conclusion where we are today,” he said. “If that is the case, you have my personal word ― and I can speak for my colleagues and for the superintendent ― that we're going to be personally accountable to make sure that all children are protected every single day.”

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis school leaders denounce 'After School Satan Club.' What they said