A rural Ohio high school superintendent made a questionable decision last month by allowing an “After-School Satan Club” to meet on school grounds while refusing a group of protestors from even meeting outside.  

The Ohio attorney general sent a letter, reminding the superintendent that the protestors had as much right to gather on public property as the club.  

That this required a letter from the state attorney general is telling. Cultural tastes shift quickly and unpredictably. Not so long ago, it would have been the “Satan Club,” not the protestors, who were considered “subversive.” Today, apparently, it’s the other way around.  

This is why it’s so important to advocate for free speech based on principle, not on the content of the speech.  

Still, it could be argued that every news story about this dust-up in Ohio buried the real lede: The After-School Satan Club, it turns out, had 7 attendees at its first meeting. Two were students. The rest were adults. 

It’s always the grown-ups.