Back in August 2014, a judge ruled that religious pamphlets could be distributed in a school district in Orange County, Florida, according to Raw Story. [1] David Williamson of the Central Florida Free Thought Community — who recently fought against Brevard County’s attempt to ban atheists from offering invocations at public meetings — sued the district over its initial unwillingness to allow atheist literature with titles like “Jesus Is Dead” and “Why I Am Not a Muslim” in the schools. A judge dismissed that case after the school board decided to allow the materials. The lawsuit was dismissed in July 2014, with the district allowing the atheist group to distribute its materials. [2] At least one of the literary works, “An X-Rated Book: Sex & Obscenity in the Bible,” had initially led the district to ban the materials. [3] Now Public Schools may ban all religious and political materials from school grounds, all because a Satanic group wants to hand out materials to students and asked to be treated on an equal footing with other religious groups. [4] The Satanic Temple has submitted a Satanic coloring book and two fact sheets to schools in Orange County, Fla., requesting permission to give them out to students in January. [5] The coloring book features cartoon children performing Satanic rituals and drawing pentagrams in school, along with a word search for words like “acceptance” and “friends” and a maze to reach the Necronmicon, a fabled occult spellbook. The children in the book wear Satanic symbols on their shirts and spread anti-bullying and religious-tolerance messages. A coloring page features a girl reading in a study filled with Satanic art, books and symbols. A connect-the-dots sheet creates a pentagram. [6] District counsel Woody Rodriguez said legal staff would review the materials, as it did for a previous atheist group that distributed some materials to Orange students. There is no set timeline for a decision. [7] Since then, the Public School Board is overwelmed with emails and phone calls of parents, citizens, media and other organization that want their version of the story. “I will share with you that my office alone, I received close to 11,000 emails in one 48-hour period on this issue and it gives you an idea of the level of disruption it was causing,” explained Orange County Public School Board Chairman Bill Sublette. Since other religious groups are allowed to do so, the group called the Satanic Temple wants to distribute its own materials, including their infamous Satanic coloring book and another strange book called, “The Satanic Children’s Big Book of Activities.” [8] The Satan worshippers said they do not want to establish a precedent of providing religious pamphlets in public schools and prefer a strict separation of church and state. [9] They say it’s a way to protest other religious materials being allowed in some Orange County high schools, like Bibles and Atheist literature. For example, last year an evangelical group was able to passively hand out Christian literature on school property. [10] Although school districts are under no obligation to allow outside groups to distribute literature to their students, once they permit a single group to do so, the Constitution places strict limits on their ability to exclude other groups whose viewpoints they disagree with. [11] In order to make it’s point, The Satanic Temple is asking for nothing less than a similar treatment concerning its own litterature. “To be sure, if our materials are consistent with their standards, they can’t simply deny our literature because of its religious viewpoint,” a Satanic Temple spokesman who goes by the name Lucien Greaves told the Orlando Sentinel. [12] “I am quite certain that all of the children in these Florida schools are already aware of the Christian religion and it’s Bible, and this might be the first exposure these children have to the actual practice of Satanism. We think many students will be very curious to see what we offer.” [13] Greave explained the underlying motive behind this stunt saying:
Even as we prefer public policies respecting secularism, we feel that opportunities — such as this — to establish an equal voice for contrasting religious opinions in the public square, tend to favor marginalized, lesser-known, and alternative religions. [14]
The Satanic Temple figured out that if there is a place for Jesus, Allah and Buddha in the classroom, according to their bogus “religious tolerance” mindset, there must be a place for Satan too!
The school board has discussed changing its policy that allows the distribution of religious materials on tables inside high schools, but no action has been taken, and no changes are currently planned. “We definitely, definitely will not be distributing those materials until we have a work session on that issue” and give Rodriguez policy direction, said School Board Chair Bill Sublette. [15] “These folks haven’t contacted us,” Kathy Marsh, a spokesperson for the school district, told the New York Daily News. “We reserve the right to review the material before we decide what is distributed.” [16] Among the literature that the Satanist organization reportedly plans to deliver to kids is “The Satanic Children’s Big Book of Activities,” a coloring book that focuses on Satanic themes and human tolerance. This “new breed” of pedagogical material contains numerous activities that will give School Boards all kind of headeache. Among others, in one activity “Damian is showing his class the way to make an inverted pentagram. Connect the dots to make one yourself,” one activity reads. The book also encourages students to go to The Satanic Temple’s website for more information about the religious group. [17]
Unfortunately for the School Board (who may want to get rid of this problem) and for the Satanic Temple itself (who are strong advocate of the separation of Church and State), there is good chances that the new proposed policy advocating the ban of all religious and political materials from school grounds will be considered unconstitutional because it does deny access based of having a religious viewpoint,” says Liberty Counsel attorney Roger K. Gannam. [18] “Liberty Counsel represents World Changers, which is the organized that has been handing out the bibles and we would gladly bring suit on their behalf to challenge the change in the policy like the one that’s been proposed,” AGannam said. [19] The school district, in a meeting Thursday, said it would consider the proposed ban based on similar rules in Miami-Dade and Broward school districts. It is an idea supported by a Central Florida group, advocating for the separation of state and church. “I think the school should be used to educate students not indoctrinate them and I think that’s where the school board has gone wrong in the last few years,” shared David Williamson, a member of the Central Florida Freethought Community. [20] The school board wants to go with an overall ban so they don’t have to pick and choose between groups. The proposal would not affect student-led clubs or programs like Fellowship of Christian Athletes. “We’re trying to maintain a high quality educational environment and it became a disruptive issue and we’re not about to allow that disruption in our classrooms,” Sublette added. [21] The Satanic Temple sees the ban as a win for them because they don’t think any religious materials should be in schools. “It’s a win-win at least we’re stopping the worst case scenario from being enacted,” said Lucien Greaves, co-founder of The Satanic Temple. “But I think it really does raise serious questions about the competence of the school board, if they weren’t considering the fact that other religious groups might come forward and might want to disseminate material,” Greaves continued. [22] A workshop on the issue is scheduled for January. There will then be a public hearing and possibly a vote in late January or February 2015. Intrigued? You can purchase the book for $9.95 here. For a very different, yet equally unconventional, take on a coloring book, check out Ryan Hunter and Taige Jensen’ hilarious “Coloring Book for Grownups.“
