A public school district in Tennessee learned an expensive lesson in July when it had to pay $15,000 to settle a lawsuit over religious discrimination.
Controversy erupted at Chimneyrock Elementary School in Cordova after the Satanic Temple, a nontheistic religious group that supports separation of church and state, applied to run an after-school club.
An evangelical Christian Good News Club already operates at the school, but school officials didn’t want to give the Temple the same access for its After School Satan Club (ASSC). Several parents and religious leaders protested outside the school, and Althea E. Greene, board chair of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools, flatly declared, “Satan has no room in this district. We can uphold freedom of speech while uplifting our students and families.”
Hemant Mehta of the “Friendly Atheist” blog listed the numerous ways school officials made things difficult for the Temple, including assessing the Temple “security fees” that the Good News Club did not have to pay, failing to respond to the Temple’s application in a timely manner, arranging for meetings of the club long after the school day had ended and charging the ASSC a $30 per-meeting fee.
With matters at an impasse, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) sued on behalf of the Temple. In July, FFRF announced that the case has been settled. The school district will pay $15,000, mostly in attorneys’ fees. The Temple will receive a nominal settlement of just under $200.
FFRF noted in a press release, “Further, the Shelby County Board of Education has agreed not to discriminate against the organization with regard to its requests to rent and use school board property at Chimneyrock Elementary School; the Temple will be subject to the same rules and requirements as other nonprofit organizations seeking to rent or use the school’s facilities.”