High school in Washington bans wearing red, white and blue to honor 9/11 at football game

A Washington state high school is scrambling to explain how one staff member was able to call off an entire event honoring the massive, world-changing terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001

Students at Eastlake High School in Sammamish wanted to mark the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks by wearing red, white and blue attire to a football game, but they were shut down because the observance could “unintentionally cause offense to some who see it differently,” according to a report.

That is, the event was shut down by people who see it differently. KTTH radio reported that the event was called off by an unnamed school staffer “at the last minute.”

A student told the station about being informed that the “red, white and blue was going to be seen as racially insensitive and may affect people in a way that we will not understand and for that reason … we were to change our theme.”

The station posted a picture of an email from an associate principal at the school, Darcie Breynaert, which read that she understands the “sacrifice and values our flag represents, but I think they [school leadership] just did not want to unintentionally cause offense to some who see it differently.”

KTTH reported that principal Chris Bede and the district’s communications director werre not specific about who exactly would be offended by seeing people dressed in red, white and blue.

“Since it was not a home game, there was no opportunity to have an announcement about Patriots Day and to share why students were dressed in red, white and blue,” Communications Director Shannon Parthemer told KTTH.

The station reported that the principal seemed to be taken “by surprise” about the decision to call off the theme. It was Parthemer who told KTTH that the decision was made by one unnamed staff member.