Since Seattle, Washington has clearly solved all of the other ills plaguing the world these days, Benjamin Franklin Elementary School decided to tackle some different, intractable problems. The school has had a tradition going back many years of hosting a costume parade for the students each Halloween. The little spooks and goblins would dress up and march along the school grounds with prizes being awarded for the best and most creative outfits. But that won’t be happening anymore starting this year. At first, I wondered if it had something to do with the “demonic” nature of Halloween that might have offended some religious sensibilities. But that wasn’t the problem at all. The entire celebration of Halloween was canceled because it could “marginalize students of color.” (Daily Wire)

A Halloween-themed parade at a school in Seattle has been canceled with school administrators arguing that it “marginalizes people of color.”

Following five years of deliberation about the future of the school’s annual pumpkin parade, Benjamin Franklin Elementary School has decided to nix the holiday tradition this year on the advice of the school’s Racial Equity Team.

The Pumpkin Parade had traditionally featured a procession of elementary students dressed in Halloween costumes.

“Historically, the Pumpkin Parade marginalizes students of color who do not celebrate the holiday,” a spokesperson told Jason Rantz, a Seattle-based conservative radio host.

The statement from the school’s spokesperson was quite specific in their reasoning. He said that it was specifically “African-American male students” who had asked to be “isolated on campus” while the pumpkin parade took place.

Because of this, the entire event was canceled. Instead of a costume parade, students will be allowed to participate in “autumnal work” and “thematic units of study about the fall.” Man, that sounds like a real hoot, doesn’t it? You can almost hear the laughing and celebratory atmosphere from here.

Somebody is going to have to help me out with this one because I’m completely failing to get it. I cover plenty of liberal lunacy in our public schools for this site, and usually, I can at least identify and put a tag on which element of left-wing ideology is at the root of these types of stories. But in this case, I’m simply drawing a blank.

What is it specifically about Halloween that would be exclusively objectionable to Black families? As I mentioned above, if these were complaints about demonic imagery coming from Christian families (or families of any religion other than Church of Satan, really) I could almost kind of understand it and suggest that an accommodation might be in order.

The letter the school sent out tried to explain by saying, “Halloween events create a situation where some students must be excluded for their beliefs, financial status, or life experience. Costume parties often become an uncomfortable event for many children, and they distract students and staff from learning.” It went on to talk about the possibility of students experiencing “over-stimulation or exclusion.”

Again, I’m simply not seeing it. How is the pumpkin parade exclusionary only to Black students? If a few of them previously requested to spend the time of the parade in the library, then they were definitely being “excluded,” but it was at their own request. And there still hasn’t been a single word offered as to how this exclusion was race-specific. Halloween has been around for a long time in various forms. Even in the modern era, we get trick-or-treaters of all races at our door every single year. We’ve seen a lot of dumb stuff coming out of Seattle, particularly in the past few years, but this one is almost managing to lower the bar even further. Hopefully, the families in the area can get together and put on some sort of event for the children away from the school grounds.