CHESAPEAKE, Va. — There were some tense moments at the Chesapeake School Board meeting Monday night as parents and community members voiced their opinions about a new club called the 'After School Satan Club.'
The club was approved when a B.M. Williams Primary School parent submitted the application on behalf of the club. The parent then withdrew their name from the application. However, organizers said a Chesapeake resident who is not a parent submitted a new application.
Monday night, many parents argued that the club should not be in a school with children so young, but others said it's no different than any other religious club.
"Damn the consequences," one parent said. "If it means we got to go to court and fight, then go to court."
Dozens of parents took to the podium at Monday night's school board meeting.
"They [the club] wants to protect kids from worldly horrors, yet this is on their site," another parent said. "I don't know when I was seven or five, that would've scared me."
June Everett, the club's campaign director said it has nothing to do with Satan, nor do they worship the devil.
"We are not demons, so we do not believe in demons, because neither exist," Everett said. "Our beliefs are not evil."
Club organizers said this all started when an email promoting the evangelical group known as the Good News Club came to parents from the principal of B.M. Williams Primary School. That's when Everett said she got a call from a school parent, asking to start an organization.
"We're only at schools where the program has been invited by a parent, teacher or community member," Everett said. "People, who don't understand who we are, take great pride in creating local community outrage by spreading fabrications."
Some supporters of the organization took to the podium Mondy night.
"I care about your kids having a safe and enriching experience in their education," one person said. "We are not that different."
The group's flyer mentions that this club is voluntary and they're not trying to convert children. Instead, they want people to look at the world scientifically and rationally.
Stephen Mannix, the chairman of the Christian organization known as the Child Evangelism Fellowship, disagrees with the club's tactics, but he believes they should have the right to meet.
"Free society allows different voices, including religious voices to speak," Mannix said. "Unfortunately, much commotion and unnecessary civil rest has been created by a group that opposes religious, especially Christian speech, in public."
One parent, who has a son in kindergarten at B.M. Williams believes the club will do more harm to young impressionable minds than good.
"Children at that age...they look for adults for guidance," she said "We set the tone, and they model the behavior that they see. I am very disappointed."
The Dec. 15 meeting date the club initially set is now tentative as school leaders conduct a safety assessment. There's no timeline on a new application, and the safety assessment will be the determining factor.
