School district and The Satanic Temple reach agreement in lawsuit over After School Satan Club
School district and The Satanic Temple reach agreement in lawsuit over After School Satan Club
An eastern Pennsylvania school district has reached a settlement with The Satanic Temple in a lawsuit alleging discrimination against students by barring one of the group's After School Satan clubs from using a school building.
The American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday that the Saucon Valley School District had agreed to pay $200,000 in attorney’s fees and to provide The Satanic Temple and the After School Satan Club it sponsors the same access to school facilities as is provided to other organizations.
The ACLU filed the lawsuit in March after the district rescinded its earlier approval to allow the club to meet following criticism. The After School Satan Club, with the motto “Educatin’ with Satan,” had drawn protests and even a threat in February that prompted closure of district schools for a day and the later arrest of a person in another state.
Saucon Valley school district attorney Mark Fitzgerald told reporters in a statement that the district denies having discriminated against The Satanic Temple, its club or “the approximately four students” who attended its meetings. He said the district’s priorities were education and the safety of students and staff.
I assume the Satanic Temple is the non-theist one, which doesn't actually believe in Satan, and just uses it to troll religious nutjobs.
It's a pity the Christian right are invariably functionally illiterate, or they would have known to not kick themselves in the dick.
Why would you assume anything? The answer is provided in the article itself. Why can so few people be arsed to read the information provided before leaping to an attempt at pithy commentary?
The group ... views Satan not as a supernatural being but as “a literary figure that represents a metaphorical construct of rejecting tyranny over the human mind and spirit.” The club’s programs, they say, focus on “science, critical thinking, creative arts, and good works for the community.”
(Boldface mine. "science" comes to us from Latin's "scientia": knowledge)
The irony of assuming something instead of learning/confirming it from the information provided, as regards an article about an organization whose stated focus is on knowledge and critical thinking, is disappointing.
Tbf they're using one of the internet's laws to their favour. I forgot the name, so I'll do the same thing and call it Godwin's law: when you want to know something you post an incorrect answer (or in this case not knowing the answer, they basically wrote the right answer) and someone will correct you soon enough.
It's lazy tbh, but it helps in case you don't know how deep the rabbit hole is gonna be and don't have the mental capacity or time to invest in it. This is specially relevant to people who have ADHD or other similar attention disorders.
P.S. I did end up looking up the actual name of the law and it's Cunningham's law, so I corrected myself in this case.
greatest reply of the season
Correct on The Satanic Temple (TST) being non-theistic. While it did start off as trolling, it has coalesced into a religion of its own (much to the chagrin of the nutty christians here), just without the superstition used to coerce people in abrahamic religions.
It's great. It calls out their hypocrisy.
It's too much brain cells because all they can think about is
Christian == good
Satan == bad
They’re both non-theist though
That's the Church of Satan, the Satanic Temple and them deny the legitimacy of each other. The Church of Satan accepts all of Satan's supposed ideology even the "bad" things, and the Satanic Temple was basically constructed as a "good" alternative/challenge to Christian political influence from a logical positivist perspective with individualism and neoliberal ideology commodified and branded with Satanic iconography. It's all pretty stupid IMO, aside from the way they can mount legal challenges. The fact they need to exist to do this is absurd but it is what it is I guess.
Iirc TST doesn't deny anything about, or really ever mention CoS. CoS doesn't like TST because of the same reasons you listed (basically they don't like being conflated or associated with TST, cus their super cereal).
I personally love the absurdity of TST, and heavily believe in their mission/philosophies. Lucian Graves has some issues, but overall they track overwhelmingly on the side of good. Am also a lifelong gothy metal kid so the aesthetic also pleases me.
Four students and Satan, facing down the ISD. You GO guys!
This is what patriotism looks like. These are the heros fighting for freedom.
After going back on its word, insulting a minority of students, and paying at least $200,000, they'll now allow the program! Fucking geniuses there in Saucon Valley administration.
The Saucon Valley administration thanks the taxpayers for their generous donation to the After School Satan Club.
As it always goes.
I guess they can Saucon it, amiright?
I bet we'll see a small town like this one eventually introduce an ordinance to ban "Satanism" within city limits. And they will see nothing wrong reconciling that with the Constitution.
Saucon? Saucon deez nuts.
After School Satan club? ASS club. Nice.
If you want to teach about God in schools.
Then you have to include all the gods. The old, the new, the spaghetti, the fallen, etc.
On a completely trivial note: who the hell estimates a number that small? Approximately 4? Just count them, it’s not hard.
Jerry doesn't show up on Wednesdays or Fridays and Susan only goes on Wednesday.
So that’s 2. Who else goes inconsistently?
This isn’t a count of how many were there each day, it is how many participated.
Counting is hard like real hard.
It's satan. Doesn't really count as a student, but likes to hang out the school with the 3 in his club. So... approximately four...
Add another to the “win” column for TST.
You can donate to TST, it’s an insane sane choice in a sane insane world.
I'm guessing the after school Jesus club didn't draw any objections.
I've been following this story for a while, and no, the school and the surrounding community didn't have a problem with the Christian club. Early on (iirc) the school claimed they denied the Satan club because they handed out fliers in school, against the rules for religious clubs, even though the Christian club did the same thing.
Of course not. In the US, you have the freedom to choose how you worship the One True Religion™.
There was a "Fellowship of Christian Athletes" when I was in high school. I wasn't an athlete, but as a Jew, I doubt I would have been welcome anyway.
Technically, this was the objection.
Teachable moment for the school district 🤣
Burning well over $200k will do that. But I'm sure some "mom" that doesn't even have kids in that school district will try something to disrupt the new club
Lmao
Beautiful.
Common TST W
$200,001. IIRC, $1 in damages.
Back in the 60s my best friend started the "organization for atheists" OFA for short. This was in response to the young christians group. They even had a cheer OFA, OFA, OFA goodness sakes!!!
lmao the jab with "approximately four" man fuck y'all
Saucon? The district is actually called Saucon?!