'You are evil': Virginia school receives bomb threat soon after first meeting of its 'Satan Club'
CHESAPEAKE, VIRGINIA: BM Williams Primary School in Chesapeake, Virginia on Tuesday, February 21, has to be placed under lockdown following a bomb threat. The school has recently come under fire from the community for operating its own Satan Club.
The threat followed days after the school held its first meeting of the After School Satan Club. It was referred to in the email which alerted officials to the threat.
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'You promote devil worship'
The anonymous email threat that was forwarded to several local media sites wrote, "You are evil, there is no other way to put it," and went on to say, "You promote devil worship and un-Islamic values," according to local WAVY News.
The meeting the school held made it to the headlines with families stating that they are upset by the attention the club is bringing to the school. Police in Salem, Massachusetts, shut down a bridge at around 9:45 am following a similar email that threatened The Satanic Temple's headquarters in the town, as per Salem News, that later turned out to be a hoax. After School Satan Club is an organization that has chapters nationwide and is founded by the Satanic Temple, reported Daily Mail.
Club is meant to 'educate children'
Lucien Greaves, a spokesperson for the Temple says the club is meant to "educate children and encourage critical thinking" without proselytization. Despite Temple officials claiming the organization does not teach Satanism, chapters created at schools around the country have faced massive backlash, the outlet noted.
Parents at the BM Williams school in Virginia appear to be on the same page as protestors planned ever since the club's inaugural meeting on February 16. Parents and families are now calling on the district to cancel the After School Satan Club. 13News Now reported that parents waited two hours to receive their children following the early dismissal on Tuesday. "I was being told to stay low and then like just to stay quiet, I was thinking of like maybe like it's just a job, but like now like I'm just kind scared", a student told the outlet.
'They need to fix it'
"This is a hassle. This is a lot to be worried about your children's safety over a club is unnecessary," said one local mom. "Unnecessary. They need to fix it," another parent said. Police searched the school for several hours on Tuesday but found nothing.
Initially, as per a report, two explosive detection K9s were alerted to a backpack in a classroom, and the Virginia State Police used an x-ray to scan the bag. The bag was determined to be empty and no other objects were found. School administrators said they plan to increase police presence in the coming days.