An elementary school in Virginia that currently hosts the After School Satan Club, was evacuated on Tuesday, February 21, due to a bomb threat. In Chesapeake, Virginia, The B.M. Williams Primary School had to evacuate students from the building at around 11 a.m., according to a statement sent to parents by Chesapeake Public Schools and provided to Fox News Digital.
The bomb threat was made only a few days after the first meeting of the After School Satan Club.
Many parents pushed back against the lockdown.
The school dismissed students at noon, following the lockdown.
Parents were outraged, according to a reporter who tweeted about the incident.
“I just want to get my daughter," a mom of a student at B.M. Williams Primary said, WTKR3 reporter Danielle Saitta tweeted. "This is ridiculous, these are children.”
The mom and other parents had no choice but to wait as police conducted a lockdown investigation following a bomb threat made to the school, the tweet noted.
Other parents were equally upset at the news.
“I was just very scared, and I just wanted to get here and make sure he was safe and that the rest of his classmates were safe,” parent Gillian said of her son Harrison, who is in kindergarten.
“I just want to get my child and go home,” parent Shanita Rheubottom told WTKR.
Explosive detection dogs flagged a backpack at the school.
The backpack was X-rayed by the Virginia State Police. According to WTKR, the backpack was found to be empty and no other objects were flagged in the school.
The police were prompted to respond when a similar bomb threat was issued against The Satanic Temple in Salem, Massachusetts. A bridge was shut down by the police in Salem at around 9:45 a.m. on Tuesday. The Satanic Temple and surrounding area were searched and cleared of the bomb threat, a public alert later noted.
An email indicated that the threat was related to the after-school club.
Though officials have yet to confirm if the threats were indeed related to the After School Satan Club, the anonymous email claimed, "You are evil, there is no other way to put it," and went on to say, "You promote devil worship and un-Islamic values,” reported local news station WAVY.
The email sent to The Satanic Temple was written in a similar vein. "We placed a bomb in the Satanic Temple in Salem," the email claimed. "In the name of Allah, we will kill all you satanic degenerates."
A spokesperson for The Satanic Temple confirmed the threats were directed at the organization.
Lucien Greaves, the spokesperson and co-founder of The Satanic Temple tweeted on Tuesday: “A motive for the threat is uncertain but language in the email appears to give reference to an After School Satan Club …. The threat was directed to an ASSC volunteer, the school, ASSC's legal rep from ACLU VA, the superintendent, & TST HQ in Salem, MA.”
