CHESAPEAKE, Va. — After months of controversy, the After School Satan Club (ASSC) held its first meeting at a Chesapeake primary school Thursday night.
The club raised some eyebrows in Chesapeake after organizers received permission from school administrators to open their club at B.M. Williams Primary School months ago.
But the club has had some hurdles actually getting started after that initial permission.
Rose Bastet, a volunteer with The Satanic Temple, told 13News Now in December that a concerned parent reached out to them about a notice of an Evangelical club known as the "Good News Club." The club was after school and offered moral lessons centered on the Christian Gospel.
"There is a double standard when it comes to Christianity," said Bastet said in December. "Christianity always seems to be immediately accepted and if there is anything contrary, there is moral outcry over it."
Nine students participated in the club at B.M. Williams Primary School Thursday.
It’s been months of back and forth, but Superintendent Dr. Jared Cotton sent a letter to Chesapeake parents letting them know the division reached an agreement with the After School Satan Club to allow them to meet.
The meeting was met with counter-protestors who say they have opposed the club since day one.
"To allow Satan to have dominion over this building is completely heartbreaking," said Steve Scheerbaum.
Scheerbaum is a devout Catholic in the area who said he and other Christians in the area will meet outside the school to pray until the club is no longer allowed to meet.
"We’re out here to make reparation, more so than our feelings, we feel that the rights of God have been violated terribly," he said as a group of about 20 protestors prayed outside of Thursday's meeting.
For now, the club is not going anywhere.
According to a letter from Cotton, the club is allowed to meet after hours for the remaining dates in their facility use application. He said it is important to note the group will meet when the building is empty and participants must have parental permission to attend.
"As many of you know, many religious groups in the area use our facilities throughout the year, following established guidelines. Favoring one religion over another or one organization over another because of its mission or its lawful, unpopular activities is called content discrimination and would violate the U.S. Constitution. As stated before, the ASSC is not a school district-approved club, and no district employee is acting as a club sponsor," he said in the letter.
Matt Callahan, an ACLU of Virginia attorney representing the club, agrees.
"Once we let the government start determining what people can and can’t say and which people can use school property and other public areas on the basis of their beliefs, you open the door to all kinds of really insidious discrimination," he said.
According to the ACLU, CPS withdrew a demand that The Satanic Temple, which sponsors the ASSC, pay a security fee based on concerns about anti-Satanist protesters.
He said after speaking with club organizers, the first meeting went well, and calls it a big win for free speech and religious liberty.
"It’s important to take action the first time you see that discrimination happening so that we can hold the line for everybody," said Callahan.
From the beginning, organizers for the club said that this is not a club where children will worship Satan. Instead, they say it is a club where students can learn about science, arts, crafts, and compassion after school.