Claudette Riley

CRILEY@NEWS-LEADER.COM

The Satanic Temple of St. Louis wants to use a Springfield school building to host its After School Satan Club.

District spokeswoman Teresa Bledsoe said the request to establish the after-school program came in Monday and will be evaluated based on board policies that govern the community or student-initiated use of school facilities.

She released a statement noting that the schools are part of the community and, as a result, the district makes its taxpayer-funded facilities available for community activities and group meetings.

"The district's board of education has policies, procedures and guidelines in place that govern how school buildings may be used when the buildings are not being used for district educational programs or district-sponsored activities," she wrote. "Granting a request for use of district facilities does not constitute the district's endorsement of the activity, organization, organization's mission, organization's message or any opinion expressed by the organization, its members or persons who attend the activity."

A website for the Satanic Temple states the organization "facilitates the communication and mobilization of politically aware Satanists, secularists, and advocates for individual liberty." The group vows to leverage religious freedom laws and court rulings that have opened the door to faith-based clubs in order to also offer the After School Satan Club.

The activist organization advocates for the separation of church and state and champions a secular point of view.

The stated goal of the clubs is to offer parents "concerned about encroachments by proselytizing evangelicals in their public schools" to establish the "presence of a contrasting voice that helps children to understand that one doesn’t need to submit to superstition in order to be a good person."

The organization has offered to present the After School Satan Club program to elementary schools in Springfield, Atlanta; Los Angeles; Pensacola, Florida; Portland, Oregon; Salt Lake City; Seattle; Tuscon, Arizona and Washington, D.C.

The desired Springfield location is listed as Watkins Elementary.

According to the website, the organization behind the After School Satan Club expects parents in the targeted schools to be presented with a permission slip from their children in the first few weeks of the school year.

In selecting which elementary schools it would target, the organization alleges each one has hosted — or is now hosting — a Good News Club, which is a ministry of the Child Evangelism Fellowship based in Warrenton, Missouri.

Bledsoe said Watkins — and at least 13 other elementary schools — have hosted the club in the past.

Asked when the district might make a final decision about allowing the After School Satan Club, Bledsoe said the request will be evaluated like every other request from an organization and she was not immediately sure how long the process typically takes.