A Seattle grade school could be on the verge of allowing a Satanic Temple to operate an after-school program on the grounds of one its schools.

An attorney hired by the Mount Vernon School District has advised school officials to allow such a development, warning that to do otherwise could lead to lengthy and costly litigation by the board that would not end as they might have it.

Dan Fobes added Mount Vernon is just one of nine district across the country to recently receive such an application.

Other Schools Targeted

Reports are the Satanic Temple has been making it a point of targeting schools that have a Good News Bible Club. Temple spokesman Tarkus Claypool has previously insisted that a parent brought the bible club to the groups attention amid growing concerns by club members that children were being allowed to evangelize to other children.

"They use the term Satan, I think, as a very successful attention-getter," said Fobes. Added local grandfather Mike Cheek, "If people were to define what satanic temple means, I think they'd be alarmed."

Other critics of the proposed change in school policy recently attended a Mt. Vernon School Board meeting, where several parents voiced their opposition to the Temple's application.

Meanwhile, Claypool insists the Temple's curriculum only teaches child logic and self-empowerment and reasoning, further insisting they don't offer a deity. The group's website also explicitly states that members do not believe in or advocates for the worshipping of Satan.

Supreme Court Ruling

A 1991 Supreme Court ruling previously found that schools must allow all organizations, religious and secular, to use school property as long as it doesn't promote hate speech or violence.

Ideally, Satanic Temple leaders indicate they would like to have a program up and running in the Mt. Vernon district sometime this school year. According to Claypool, the organization has goals of implemented an After School Satan Club at every school that runs a Good News Bible Club.