ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The Saucon Valley School District says in a new court filing it plans to revise its policies in the wake of a controversy over repealing permission to let an After-School Satan Club use its property.
Once the new rules are adopted, the Satan Club’s would-be sponsors can reapply to rent meeting space from the district, it says in the filing, submitted in response to a lawsuit the American Civil Liberties Union filed on the club's behalf.
Because of that, the court does not need to force SVSD to allow the Satan Club to meet, the district argues.
- Lawyers for the Saucon Valley School District defended the decision to bar an "After-School Satan Club" from meeting on campus in a filing released Thursday
- The district plans to revise its policies governing outside groups' use of district property, and then allow the Satan Club to reapply for permission to meet there next school year
- Thursday's filing came in response to a request from the Satanic Temple and the American Civil Liberties Union for a federal judge to allow the Satan club to meet on district property
The district's response was released Thursday.
Policy changes proposed
According to the filing, the district plans to revise existing policies governing the “time, place and manner” in which outside groups can use school property, and plans to vote on revisions “as early as May 1, or, by July 1, 2023,” to take effect next school year.
Among the proposed changes, district officials would gain new authority to require any group it sees as posing a heightened safety threat to contract for additional security at the group’s expense.
Among the proposed changes, district officials would gain new authority to require any group it sees as posing a heightened safety threat to contract for additional security at the group’s expense.
It also would require outside groups to include specific new language spelling out that the school district does not sponsor their activities, and prohibit advertisements for their programs from using the words “Saucon Valley.”
The filing also defends the district's decision to repeal approval for the Satan Club to use its property.
The district’s decision hinges on District Policy 707, which requires outside groups that meet on district property to “clearly communicate that the activities are not being sponsored by the school district,” the filing says.
“The District has not foreclosed TST from renting space for the Club in the District, even though the current iteration of Policy 707 gives the District the authority to do so and TST’s actions provide the District with the justification for it," the district's lawyers wrote.
'Provocative social media campaign'
In Thursday’s filings, lawyers for the district accused the Satanic Temple of intentionally violating district policy by engaging “in a provocative social media campaign misleading District parents and community members, and even strangers across the country.”
It cites a Facebook post advertising the club which included a digital flyer that “identified ‘Saucon Valley Middle School’ in large font in the center of the flyer, again indicating the Club was being sponsored by the district.”
Court documents also reference a post from the Satanic Temple’s national Facebook page “advertising that the District was ‘hosting’ the Club.”
Court documents also reference a post from the Satanic Temple’s national Facebook page “advertising that the District was ‘hosting’ the Club.”
The district attributes uproar over the club and a mass-shooting threat that followed at least in part to the social media posts.
In a lawsuit filed late last month, lawyers for the Satanic Temple and the ACLU called the school board’s invocation of rule 707 "a pretext” for “viewpoint and/or content discrimination,” and argued the rule is not applied equally to all non-school organizations who use school facilities.
A motion submitted the next day asked the U.S District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania to compel Saucon Valley to allow the After School Satan Club to meet on campus.
