Home Care In Lebanon, CT

LEBANON — There's a popular, yet somewhat dated song that tells the tale of the devil going down to Georgia. Now, according to some opponents of the After School Satan Club, he's making a side trip to Lebanon, Connecticut.

Watch More

Members of the Salem, Massachusetts-based Satanic Temple made the two-hour drive down from their headquarters Friday to help launch the first meeting of the After School Satan Club at Lebanon Elementary School. This is the first such group in Connecticut and the ninth around the country, according to the organization.

The club is being launched in this eastern Connecticut farming community in response to the presence of the Good News Club, which is operated by the Warrenton, Missouri-based Child Evangelism Fellowship, in the same local school. The fellowship has more than 3,000 groups around the country and 80,000 around the world, its officials say.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

More For You

Horse tranquilizer drug still prevalent in CT overdose deaths

CT church collapse shows importance of preservation, advocates say

Owners of CT ice cream shop say new town ordinance aimed at them

Lawsuit alleging landlord price fixing could affect 'thousands' in CT

CT receives $2M federal grant to help grow urban forests

"We don't go into any school unless there's another religious club operating," club campaign director and Satanic Temple minister June Everett said Friday, adding that their goal is not to turn children towards satanism, but to offer an alternative to Christian-based clubs in schools.

Speaking specifically of the Good News Club, she said that it bullies children who participate and threatens them with damnation.

"We don't proselytize or attempt to indoctrinate," she said.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Everett said that as of Friday morning, there were 12 permission slips for the first meeting filed with the school, but added that there may be students from other districts who sign up to attend.

For the first meeting, Everett said, there would be fun and less-structured activities such as rock painting and the making of friendship bracelets. But going forward, the participants will take part in activities bases on the group's seven tenets, which include: acting with compassion and empathy towards all creatures with reason; the struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions; and that one’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone. Those activities will emphasize a scientific, rationalist, non-superstitious world view, Everett said.

Everett said she expected protests in Lebanon and that it has happened elsewhere.

"Our goal is not to be palatable to the masses. We are satanists and proud satanists," she said. "We would be doing a disservice trying to hide who we are."

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Two Lebanon residents who went to the school on Friday in opposition to the After School Satan Club, say they have spiritual concerns about the group.

"We feel that there are evil spirits here and that they are going to prey on our children," said Claudia Catani.

Sandra Cloutier said she believed the goal of the club was to deceive and indoctrinate the students in the club. "It's a spiritual battle," Cloutier said.

According to Cloutier, there will be a large rally opposing the club on the town green Saturday, beginning at noon.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Child Evangelism Fellowship Vice President Moises Esteves said Friday that his group's Lebanon club has about 20 participants and that is has been in the school for two years.

Esteves said he believe the satanists have ill intentions that will be harmful to children in the long run because they espouse defying authority, including the authority of parents.

"Kids are struggling in our society. They need something that gives them hope and comfort," he said.

Esteves said the power all lies in the hands of the parents, who can decide to send their children to either club. "Historically, ours keep going, theirs don't," he said.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

But Esteves added that both can coexist even though they are diametrically opposed. "We are called by God to love everybody," he said.

Connecticut public schools are in many ways bound by a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court decision that mandates that schools must allow after school clubs without regard to the religious, political, or philosophical ideas they express.

Dec 1, 2023

By Steven Goode

Steven has been a reporter for more than 30 years, spending most of that time at the Hartford Courant. He has covered schools, crime, courts, politics, public safety and business and the mortgage industry. In his free time Steven enjoys camping, going to the beach, reading mysteries, discovering new IPAs and rollercoasters and spending time with his family.

LEBANON, CT (WFSB) - The After School Satan Club has caused massive controversy in the rural town of Lebanon.

Friday was the club’s first meeting at Lebanon Elementary.

Some parents are furious, while others have signed their kids up.

“A lot of people get riled up with the name Satan, we understand that,” said June Everett, Campaign Director for the After School Satan Club.

Everett drove from headquarters in Salem, Massachusetts for the club’s first meeting in Lebanon.

“We’re not going after people’s children who want nothing to do with us. We don’t want them there,” Everett said.

The club is undoubtedly controversial, mostly because of its name and association with the Satanic Temple.

But Everett said students in Lebanon won’t be worshipping the devil at club meetings.

“We have some STEM activities, we’re going to be doing friendship bracelets,” said Everett.

The club flyer said it does not attempt to convert children to any religious ideology but supports kids to think for themselves, calling Satan a literary figure.

Eyewitness News spoke to mother Julie Valvo. She did not want her face on camera.

Her two children, four and six years old, are in the club.

“Fundamentally I don’t believe religion has a place in public schools. Unfortunately, since it’s warmed its way in, it’s only right to offer the kids a balanced choice,” Valvo said.

Julie is talking about the Good News Club, an Evangelical Christian based after school club, also in Lebanon.

The school board doesn’t approve or sponsor the club. It just rents out the space to these groups.

Some parents, like Larry Lee, feel elementary school age is too young for kids to know about Satan.

A club banner said “Education With Satan” as leaders hold up horns during a board of education meeting last month.

“When my son comes home with it in his paperwork that’s to me stepping over some boundaries in a whole different program,” Lee said.

In 2001 the Supreme Court ruled a school district cannot stop groups exercising free speech by trying to meet on school grounds.

“Is kindergarten a little too young to know about Satan?” Eyewitness News said.

“I don’t think so. I think the school sends home the same fliers about the good news club. So, if it’s not too young to learn about Good News Evangelical biblical stuff. Then why would it be too inappropriate to get a flier about the opposite stuff,” said Everett.

The club met for an hour Friday. They will meet once a month through May.

Right now 12 kids are in the club. The group aims to bring in kids from kindergarten to fifth grade.

Their parents have to sign them up. Parents are allowed to stay for the club meetings too.

Copyright 2023 WFSB. All rights reserved.

LEBANON, Conn. (WTNH) — Parents were fired up on Tuesday night at the Lebanon Board of Education meeting over a controversial club for students.

The After-School Satan Club is coming to Lebanon Elementary School on Dec. 1 but some parents are trying to prevent that.

“I just can’t believe I’m here talking about this,” said parent Tom Buckley, whose child attends Lebanon Elementary School. “I don’t think this kind of material needs to be in the hands of my 5-year-old.”

Everybody who spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting addressed the satanic club.

The first speaker was Julie Valvo who said she requested the club move to the small town to create a more diverse balance of extra-curricular activities and is looking forward to helping run it.

“The current frenzy in our community over the club’s name and cartoon mascot only solidifies the need of such a rational and science-based club to exist,” Valvo said.

She said 12 kids are signed up so far.

Despite their name, the club said they do not worship the devil. The Satanic Temple, based out of Salem Massachusetts, currently operates these after-school clubs in eight states.

The Satanic Temple’s campaign director June Everett said they view Satan as a literary figure who represents rejecting government cruelty and supporting the human mind and spirit.

“We do a lot of science-based projects and giving back to the community,” Everett said.

While permission slips are required to join, some parents were angered over alleged flyers sent home with kids and now want the club to go elsewhere.

“When my kid comes home with this in his paperwork that to me is stepping over some boundaries,” parent Larry Lee said.

Lebanon Public School District Superintendent Andrew Gonzalez previously told News 8 that the district allows outside organizations to use their facilities based on a board policy enacted in 2007. They say prohibiting certain groups based on their religious views could violate the First Amendment and other laws.

The district does currently have a Good News Christian Club.

“This club has a lot of topics that aren’t appropriate for those kids. You say it’s not about Satan, but I can buy a shirt on that website that says hail Satan,” Buckley said.

The Lebanon Board of Education did not discuss the club during the meeting Tuesday night or make any decisions about it.

Several officers were present at the meeting but there were no incidents.

There are concerns over a new after-school club in Lebanon. The "Satan Club" is set to meet at Lebanon Elementary School starting next month and that's gotten the attention of parents. Organizers say it's not what you think.

“There’s just a lot of people that just don’t want to hear what we’re about. They don’t want to hear what we believe," June Everett said.

Everett is the campaign director for the after-school program of the satanic temple. She said they view Satan as a literary figure.

“We look at Satan as a symbol of being the ultimate rebel and standing up against tyrannical authority,” she said.

Everett said the club was requested by a parent and got district approval this week to operate. But, it doesn’t involve any religion.

“We do not teach about Satan. We do not teach them songs to sing to their friends. There’s no proselytizing that takes place at all with our club,” she said.

Everett said instead, kids will be doing activities that focus on science and rationalization while building empathy and tolerance for all creatures, and she wants to push back on misconceptions.

“We do not worship the devil. We’re not sacrificing goats or babies. We are simply having equal access to the space that we have a right to,” she said.

A right that was given thanks to a 2001 Supreme Court ruling (Good News Club v. Milford Central School) that allowed an evangelical Christian group, the Good News Club, to use school buildings after hours.

Lebanon Elementary School has a Good News Club meeting every week at school.

"We do not believe any religious organization should be operating out of our public schools but if they have the right to be there, then we would like to be there as well for our members and our families," Everett said.

In a statement, Lebanon Public Schools Superintendent Andrew Gonzales said:

“The Lebanon Public Schools (LPS) allows outside organizations to use LPS facilities, in accordance with Board Policy 1007. As such, LPS must allow community organizations to access school facilities, without regard to the religious, political or philosophical ideas they express, as long as such organizations comply with the viewpoint-neutral criteria set forth in the policy. Not everyone will agree with, or attend meetings of, every group that is approved to use school facilities. However, prohibiting particular organizations from accessing our school buildings based on the perspectives they offer or express could violate our obligations under the First Amendment and other applicable law and would not align with our commitment to non-discrimination, equal protection and respect for diverse viewpoints.”

People in town have mixed feelings.

“This is a free country. We’re supposed to have freedom of religion or no religion so I can understand both sides of the story,” said Dori Dougal, who lives in Lebanon.

The After School Satan Club is set to begin next month. The temple said five students have signed up to join so far.

LEBANON — Christian and satanist organizations that sponsor after-school clubs throughout the nation — the latter often swooping in to counter the Christians' message — have made a small town in eastern Connecticut the latest center of their epic struggle.

The Salem, Massachusetts-based Satanic Temple recently announced a new After School Satan Club at Lebanon Elementary School, the same school where the Warrenton, Missouri-based Child Evangelism Fellowship has been running a Good News Club.

The After School Satan Club ("Educatin' with Satan" is the motto) is to hold its first session at the school on Dec. 1. Nine students have signed up, with their parents' permission, and five adults, including two leaders of the regional Satanic Temple, have volunteered as activity leaders, club campaign director and Satanic Temple minister June Everett said Monday.

This is the first of the organization's after-school clubs in Connecticut, Everett said, and joins eight clubs in several other states. The Child Evangelism Fellowship sponsors about 2,500 Good News Clubs.

"The After School Satan Club does not believe in introducing religion into public schools and will only open a club if other religious groups are operating on campus," according to the Satanic Temple. "ASSC exists to provide a safe and inclusive alternative to the religious clubs that use threats of eternal damnation to convert school children to their belief system."

"These atheists have been after us for many years," Child Evangelism Fellowship Vice President Moises Esteves said Monday. "This is their latest attempt. I don't foresee them quitting because in their bones, they hate God and they hate the fact that we're in public schools (teaching the Gospel)."

The satanists, however, say they offer an alternative to Christian proselytizing in taxpayer-funded schools.

Melissa Gurr, a leader of the Satanic Temple congregation in Connecticut and Rhode Island and one of the volunteer club leaders in Lebanon, said the goal of the club "is not necessarily just to counter the Good News Club ... Our purpose is to offer an alternative to the Good News Club or other religious clubs that may or may not be proseltyzing."

Gurr said she has received a couple of hate messages since the club was announced, but she said there's "nothing nefarious" about planned activities, She noted that the club posted a wish list on Amazon that includes science kits and crafts.

Satanic Temple members say they are not the red demons of popular imagination.

"After School Satan Clubs will focus on free inquiry and rationalism, the scientific basis for which we know what we know about the world around us," according to the organization. "We prefer to give children an appreciation of the natural wonders surrounding them, not a fear of everlasting other-worldly horrors."

Due to local policy that follows a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Lebanon schools must allow after school clubs without regard to the religious, political, or philosophical ideas they express, School Superintendent Andrew Gonzalez wrote in a prepared statement.

"Not everyone will agree with, or attend meetings of, every group that is approved to use school facilities," Gonzalez wrote. "However, prohibiting particular organizations from accessing our school buildings based on the perspectives they offer or express could violate our obligations under the First Amendment and other applicable law and would not align with our commitment to non-discrimination, equal protection and respect for diverse viewpoints.”

The new after-school club has been the topic of heated discussion on Lebanon social media forums. Some called the new club "disgusting" and "evil," while others wrote that parents should be free to enroll their kids in activities that align with their beliefs or non-beliefs.The Satanic Temple has been alerting Lebanon parents through flyers and Facebook posts that try to assure them of the group's educational intentions.

All after-school Satan Clubs, according to the organization, are based on activities centered around the Seven Fundamental Tenets and emphasize a scientific, rationalist, non-superstitious world view. Tenets include: "The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one's own."

The satanists like to draw a reaction, Esteves said, but their ultimate goal is to get pushed out of a school system so that school leaders then have to ban all after-school clubs. Everett denied that was the goal. Esteves also said Satanic Temple leaders push for a rejection of authority, which not only includes the ultimate authority, God, but also their parents.

With all the pressures and problems children are facing today, he said, including increased mental health ailments, drugs and sexual predators, what parent is going to say, "This is exactly what my kid needs — the After School Satan Club?"

As for proselytizing, Esteves said the Good News Club leaders know that the decision to embrace Christianity is between God and an individual.

"We teach the good news of the gospel," he said, "that Jesus is the savior of the world and his message of love and forgiveness."

And the Satanic Temple's goal of getting kicked out of schools so they can drag CEF's Good News Clubs with them has backfired, according to the organization, as more schools have requested Good News Clubs since the beginning of advertisements for the After School Satan Clubs, according to CEF.

Providence Schools allowed Good News Clubs this year afer CEF sued the district in March, contending that hostility toward the group’s religious message spurred district denial of students' access to the “free, positive and character-building” clubs, The Providence Journal reported.

The U.S. Department of Education this year posted guidelines for school districts in accommodating such clubs. The guidance says students may organize prayer groups and religious clubs "to the same extent that students are permitted to organize other noncurricular student activity groups."

"School officials should neither encourage nor discourage participation in student-run activities based upon the activities' religious character or perspective," the guidelines say. "Schools may take reasonable steps to ensure that students are not pressured to participate (or not to participate) in such religious activities."