Local Satanists turn tables on Christian program in Ohio schools

A group of Satanists in Ohio have turned the tables on a "religious release" program in public schools that allows for students to be taken off campus for religious education in the middle of the school day.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that the Edgewood Elementary School in Marysville, Ohio will begin allowing students to take time off during the school day to attend the Hellion Academy of Independent Learning (HAIL), which is sponsored by the Satanic Temple.

June Everett, a local minister at the Satanic Temple, tells local news station WCMH that the Satanic religious education is only offered at schools where it's being requested and only in schools with programs that already allow for similar religious releases.

According to Everett, a parent of a student at Edgewood put in a request for HAIL as an alternative to the LifeWise Academy that offers Bible lessons in 200 different schools across Ohio.

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"We aren’t trying to shut the LifeWise Academy down, but I do think a lot of school districts don’t realize when they open the door for one religion, they open it for all of them,” Everett said.

Everett also tried to disspel the notion that she was teaching children to be evil.

"We are not devil worshipers,” Everett tells WOSU. “Different Satanists across the United States will give you different answers depending on how they personally believe. But as a whole, we are non-theistic, meaning we don’t believe in any supernatural deities and that includes, you know, God or Satan.”