Claudette Riley

CRILEY@NEWS-LEADER.COM

Superintendent John Jungmann has responded to the group seeking to establish an After School Satan Club at Watkins Elementary.

The Aug. 9 letter, obtained by the News-Leader, acknowledges the request from the Satanic Temple of St. Louis, provides links to pertinent board policies governing facility usage and states the district's long-standing approach to such requests.

The letter does not deny the request.

"The district allows community groups to use its facilities for educational, recreational, social, civic, philanthropic and similar purposes when the facilities are not being used by the district or district-sponsored groups," Jungmann wrote.

The letter includes links to the policy governing community use of district facilities as well as the application and contract for facility usage, which outlines the rules and rental fees.

Springfield Public Schools receives temple's request for 'After School Satan Club'

The policy makes it clear the superintendent, his designee, or the board must sign off on facility usage by a community group. It says that priority is given to groups and activities that "directly benefit" students.

Springfield is one of at least nine urban districts that recently received a request from the Satanic Temple to establish an After School Satan Club. Others are located in Atlanta; Los Angeles; Pensacola, Florida; Portland, Oregon; Salt Lake City; Seattle; Tuscon, Arizona and Washington, D.C.

The activist group, which advocates for the separation of church and state, has vowed 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.

In a news release announcing the campaign to establish the clubs, the group stated that "decades of Evangelical litigation" have opened the door to the After School Satan Club. The club — rather than studying or worshiping Satan — is expected to focus on "free inquiry and rationalism, the scientific basis for which we know what we know about the world around us."

The group announced it was targeting schools that have hosted a Good News Club, which is a ministry of the Child Evangelism Fellowship based in Warrenton, Missouri.

Teresa Bledsoe, spokeswoman for the district, said the clubs have met in at least 14 Springfield schools including Watkins. She said requests from community groups seeking to use school facilities are handled in a timely manner.

The group said that it wants the After School Satan Club to start in the first few weeks of the school year and expects permission slips to be sent home to students.

"All of the districts we’ve approached are nearby to local chapters of The Satanic Temple, and each school district has hosted, or is now hosting, Good News Clubs in their schools," said Lucien Greaves, spokesman for the group, in a release. "This being the case, we are sure that the school districts we’ve approached are well aware that they are not at liberty to deny us use of their facilities, nor are they at liberty to deny us any level of representation in the schools that they afford to other school clubs — such as fliers, tables, brochures, and school-wide announcements."