Why the Satanic Temple is offering a religious release program at public schools

Elementary school students in Marysville, Ohio, have a new kind of religious instruction available to them starting this month: a program put on by the Satanic Temple.
The Hellion Academy of Independent Learning, or HAIL, program has been introduced at Edgewood Elementary School after parents expressed interest in having an alternative to the Christian release program that’s already on offer, according to the local news station NBC 4.
Through the Satanic Temple’s curriculum, students will learn about values like compassion, empathy and justice. They’ll also likely study religious freedom, since much of the Satanic Temple’s work centers on educating Americans about religious freedom protections — while also testing their limits.
The Hellion Academy of Independent Learning program is available to students from all religious backgrounds, according to a Satanic Temple press release.
The Satanic Temple’s press release noted that release time religious instruction has been available in school districts across the country for decades.
The Supreme Court cleared the way for the programs with a 1954 ruling saying that they don’t violate the Constitution as long as classes take place off school grounds and all faith groups have the opportunity to work with school districts.
“The Supreme Court’s ruling makes it clear that schools are not obligated to approve RTRI programs … (but) if a school approves an RTRI, it may not discriminate among religious groups,” the press release explained.
Students who enroll in a release time religious instruction program with parental permission are allowed to leave the school grounds for a portion of each day, week or month for the associated classes.
Before this month’s launch of the Hellion Academy of Independent Learning, students in Marysville, Ohio, were already able to take part in a release program through LifeWise Academy, a Christian group active across the country, NBC 4 reported.
“According to Marysville LifeWise, the program is offered to students during lunch and recess once a week,” the article said.
The Satanic Temple remains critical of Christian release programs in schools even as it launches its own program for release time religious instruction. Students who don’t take part in the Christian programs often feel left out, the press release said.
Through the Hellion Academy of Independent Learning, the Satanic Temple aims to help those students find a sense of belonging while also testing school districts’ awareness of that 1954 Supreme Court ruling.
“These groups are only allowed to operate in public schools because they take students off site, they do not use public funding, and the school districts in principle do not discriminate against any similar programs based on the religion organizing the activity. HAIL will be testing school districts on that last requirement, but providing an alternative to these exclusively Christian, exclusionary RTRI offerings,” the organization explains on its website.
During the holiday season, the Satanic Temple, which doesn’t actually worship Satan, according to The Associated Press, and instead, promotes secular values, also often tests officials overseeing holiday displays in government buildings by requesting to set up Satanic displays alongside Christmas trees or Nativity scenes.
Just as the Supreme Court has said that schools must work with religious organizations of all stripes on release time religious instruction programs, it’s said that government buildings must work to create religiously diverse holiday displays.
Last year, a Satanic Temple display in the Iowa state Capitol grabbed national headlines after a visitor objected to its inclusion and destroyed it.