A Satanist just won a religious exemption for bathroom access in school

A Colorado school district caved after The Satanic Temple used a legal playbook favored by the Christian Right

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A high school student in Colorado just obtained a religious accommodation to get around what she claims are her district’s restrictive bathroom access rules. But we’re not talking about a Christian student complaining about transgender students using the facilities or anything like that.

She’s a Satanist.

The issue dates back to February when the Elizabeth School District introduced a system called Minga that essentially offers digital hall passes. It tracks students who leave their classes to go off-campus or go to the bathroom. Students sign out on their own and the system logs where they’re going and how long they’re gone.

As just about any teacher can tell you, there are always students who insist they need to go to the bathroom during your time together, who leave class much longer than they should be gone, who might lie about where they’re going or what they’re doing, etc. Trying to manage all that while still respecting students’ rights is always a predicament—especially when there’s no paper trail—and every school has different ways of dealing with students who abuse the privilege.

The Minga system is meant to take that pressure off teachers while still offering accountability. It also allows schools to know where students might be in case of emergencies.

In February, Michelle Thompson, a mother of an Elizabeth High School student, told the school board she was concerned about how Minga would impact kids’ “physical health, overall well-being, and dignity” because it was already denying students—including her daughter—the ability to go to the bathroom when needed: “Our child's ability to independently meet a basic biological need has effectively been restricted.”

She added that, even though she was assured parents would have the right to opt their kids out of the Minga system, the district’s administration was denying her that option.

The district didn’t budge, so in March, Matt Kezhaya, a lawyer for The Satanic Temple, sent a letter to the district demanding Thompson’s daughter (“ST”) be allowed to opt out of the system. They specifically said she was denied the ability to leave class even though she was on her period:

By its very nature, the [Minga] system requires ST to subordinate her bodily needs to institutional permission and surveillance. On Mondays, all requests to use the bathroom are denied. The bathroom is available to only three children at a time, and then only for up to five minutes under threat of forcible removal by a security guard.

On February 2, 2026, these restrictions caused ST to have a bleed-through accident because she was unable to tend to her menses. This caused such shame and embarrassment that she now refuses to use the restrooms while at the school.

(One reason bathroom requests might be denied on Mondays is because there’s a shortened class schedule that day.)

The Satanic Temple pointed out that Thompson had repeatedly asked the district for a religious accommodation but was denied—something administrators can only do if they have a legally compelling reason to do so. The lawyer demanded to know those reasons:

As you hold the burden of justifying the refusal of a religious accommodation, please respond with a statement of all compelling interests requiring the District to refuse Ms. Thompson’s demanded religious accommodation, as well as statement of those facts that support why the refusal is narrowly tailored to achieve those interests.

The lawyer also referenced the Supreme Court’s 2025 ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor, a case that gave religious parents the ability to remove their kids from class if the instruction conflicted with their faith.

At the heart of the argument was the claim that Thompson and her child were Satanists, so this wasn’t some made-up excuse. They even had a faith-based rule that allowed them to get around the Minga system—the same rule Satanists have tried to use to get around abortion restrictions.

Ms. Thompson is raising [her child] in the beliefs and practices of TST. As part of this religious upbringing, Thompson and ST both adhere to TST’s Seven Fundamental Tenets.

The Third Tenet provides:

One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.

Pursuant to the Third Tenet, TST’s adherents believe that natural bodily functions are sacred, and any institutional efforts to control those sacred functions should be resisted. See also TST’s Second Tenet (“The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.”)

The bathroom monitoring system interferes with ST’s adherence to the Third Tenet and requires accommodation…

Beyond those statements, the letter read exactly like something you’d see from a conservative Christian legal group, saying that the family’s religious views gave them a special right to get around a general rule. The letter even noted that the district offered exceptions for people with medical or disability-related reasons, therefore it was illegal to deny those same exceptions to anyone who had a religious justification for opting out of the Minga system.

That argument worked.

On March 19, the district told Kezhaya that Thompson’s daughter would be granted a religious accommodation.

… the District will exempt ST from the Minga system for purposes of restroom access, allowing her to leave the classroom for the restroom at any time and for any duration without logging her departure in the system. In place of a digital hall pass, ST will be provided a laminated physical pass for her exclusive use, which she will present to her teacher upon leaving and return upon coming back to class. ST will remain subject to the Minga system for all other out-of-classroom purposes, including visits to the counselor, library, and main office as implemented at Elizabeth High School.

(As part of the agreement, ST’s parents have to sign a waiver saying the district will not be held accountable “for any consequences that may flow from ST’s unmonitored movement through the building.”)

The bottom line here? Satanists secured a religious accommodation to a public school district policy by pointing to one of their Seven Fundamental Tenets. If Christians can get away with the religious accommodation excuse when it comes to reading challenging books or learning about sexuality in a health class, there’s no reason Satanists can’t apply the same logic when it comes to something sensible.

The same legal playbook that’s been used to privilege Christianity is now being used to protect a Satanist’s right to control her own body in a public school.

Eliphaz Costus, the Campaign Director for The Satanic Temple’s “Protect Children Project,” told me in a statement that the district was right to accommodate their client:

This was a cut and dry case of our religious right to bodily autonomy being violated by an invasive digital system. I’m thrilled we could successfully advocate on this family's behalf and I hope this will establish a precedent for other TST student members to be exempted from Minga bathroom controls.

It’s sad that the easiest way to secure dignity in a public institution is to claim it’s a religious mandate, but if those are the rules, then they need to apply to everyone across the board. The district hasn’t said anything about why it denied ST’s reasonable request before her family brought up their faith, but now that they have, it’s virtually impossible to reject if the district wants to avoid a lawsuit.

The Christian Right helped build this world. Will any of them complain now that Satanists are using the rulebook those Christian wrote to their own benefit?

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