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TAYLORSVILLE — An after-school club focusing on Satanism could be coming to a Utah school.
A controversial religious group is making a push to hold meetings with students in the Granite School District.
The local chapter of The Satanic Temple has filed paperwork to start holding after school meetings at Vista Elementary in Taylorsville. Members of the organization claim they want the same rights as other groups.
District officials say, by law, that if they want to gather at the school, officials have to let them.
“We identify with the character of Satan as being the ultimate rebel,” said Chalice Blythe, who belongs to The Satanic Temple of Utah. Blythe used a nickname and did not want to use her real identity.
Blythe considers herself a Satanist. She's also one of the many behind this movement to host "after-school Satan club" meetings in public school buildings.
“If you are going to open a religious discussion in the public forum then you have to allow everybody,” she said.
Blythe said religious groups like The Good News Club, an evangelical Christian organization, holds meetings at schools like vista elementary.
Their goal: To level the religious playing field.
“Our clubs are going to function the exact same way that The Good News Clubs function,” Blythe said.
"This 'after-school Satan club’ must, by law, be treated like any other outside entity. If they want to rent a facility after hours and the building is available, they will be permitted to do so. This rental does not permit them to solicit our students or advertise on school property," a Granite School District spokesperson wrote in a statement.
Blythe said this is religious liberty at work and this group is simply exercising that right.
These groups have no affiliation with the schools. And district officials say no outside group, including The Good News Club, is allowed to advertise their meetings on school property or during school hours.
The "after-school Satan club" is still waiting on approval to hold their meetings at the school.
