Applause Erupts as Hundreds of Parents Cheer School Board for Blocking After-School Satan Club

There will be no After-School Satan Club allowed at an elementary school in Pennsylvania.

The Northern York County School District board voted 8-1 against a parent's request for the satanic club at Northern Elementary School in Dillsburg, the York Daily Record reports. 

Hundreds of people attended the meeting and erupted in applause when the board vote was taken.

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The board listened to more than two hours of comments from concerned citizens and parents with a majority opposed to the club. 

"Look at the range of our students the children suffering from mental health issues, suicide, anxiety, depression all these things are off the chart and my heart goes out to these kids," one resident at the meeting said. "More than ever we need a God in this world and this proposal in the opposite direction (of God)."

Some residents said they understood parents' concerns, but being able to form the club was a constitutional right. 

The club was proposed by Samantha Groome, a local mother who was looking for a non-religious alternative to the Joy El Christian club that provided students with off-campus, faith-based activities during the school day, serving nine of the 16 school districts in the county, according to the York Daily Record. 

Groome, who is not religious, told the newspaper she did not want her children to miss out on extracurricular activities like Joy El, but there were no secular alternatives. 

There are currently four After School Satan Clubs currently in operation in the U.S. Those chapters are in Indiana and Ohio. 

Satanic Temple (TST) co-founder Lucien Greaves told the newspaper his Satan Club program highlights what he believes are inconsistencies with the separation of church and state in America.

"What you can't do is you can't pick and choose between viewpoints, you can't say that you're going to only accept certain religious voices, but not others," Greaves said. "That is religious discrimination."

After the board's vote, Greaves told the newspaper that TST will likely pursue legal action against the school district.