Satanic Temple calls out Texas school district’s policy of beating kids

The Satanic Temple is known for their masterful trolling of Christians. This time they’re going after “sadists” in Three Rivers, Texas. Why? Because last summer, the city’s public school district voted to allow paddling as a form of punishment for children.

Now Temple spokesman Lucien Greaves says that school administrators who think hitting kids is okay need to be replaced, and that sentiment was reflected in a billboard put up by the Temple in Three Rivers.

The billboard reads: “Our Religion Doesn’t Believe in Hitting Children.”

“Hopefully, our billboard will give pause to passersby who will be forced to confront the fact that the school district is being operated by depraved and ignorant sadists who have no business being in education,” Greaves said, according to Patheos. “The billboard should be a wakeup call that the school district trustees, who voted 6 – 0 for corporal punishment, need to be replaced by competent and humane members of the community who have children’s best interests at heart.”

In a press release, Greaves cited one of the Satanic Temple’s seven tenets, which says: “One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.”

Lucien Greaves (YouTube)

The decision to reinstate corporal punishment in Three Rivers’ schools is not unique, as it joins 26 other districts which have approved the practice. As CBS News pointed out in July, students will only be subject to paddling if parents give their consent. The punishment can be meted out for minor offenses, such as disobeying class rules.

In March, the Temple put up another billboard in Texas with a similar message in response to a paddling incident in 2012 where a male assistant principal spanked two female students at Springtown High School. After the incident, the district amended its policy to only allow corporal punishment if the parents give their consent.

Both of the billboards direct people to The Protect Children project, which is run by the Temple, and aims to protect children from abuse in schools.

The website states that the Satanic Temple “believes that children should not be objects of physical violence or psychological abuse. We have prepared a letter that can be signed by students which inform their schools that their deeply held beliefs do not allow for them to be hit in school, physically restrained, placed in solitary confinement, or deprived access to a bathroom.”

In an interview with the Religion News Service last year, Greaves clarified that the Satanic Temple represents an “atheistic religion.”

“We’re non-theistic, in any case,” Greaves said, adding that the Temple’s activism is “not dependent on a belief in a literal ‘Satan.'”

Featured image via Patheos

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.