Central Park School for Children in Durham, North Carolina has enrolled grade-school students in a “Black Lives March and Rally” scheduled for March 17, 2016. The teachers can opt-in or opt-out their classes, but parents have not been given a choice.

Stef Bernal-Martinez, a teacher of 6-year-old children, signed up all the children in her class for a “Black Lives March and Rally” to take place during the school day, at the city’s downtown Central Park and Farmer’s Market. Ms. Bernal-Martinez describes herself as a “Radical Queer Progressive Educator” and “white-passing Xicana.”

The event, like the Black Lives Matter movement itself, is less a spontaneous protest movement than a divide-and-conquer campaign by elite leftists. Two out of three African-Americans prefer the hrase “All Lives Matter” to “Black Lives Matter” according to a national August, 2015 Rasmussen poll. The grade school is predominantly Caucasian, but run by radical leftists. Naturally the school didn’t send the parents consent forms.

The school’s K-4 Associate Director, Raenel Duncan-Edmonds, brags the school is training “activists.” Parents, particularly families with police officers, have objected to their children being recruited as Black Lives Matter marchers. Black Lives Matter participants have called for violence against police officers in the past.

The phrase “black lives matter” is a simple statement about which all people of goodwill readily agree. The problem with the Black Lives Matter movement is the insidious insinuation that most people, white or otherwise place little value on African-Americans’ lives. Black Lives Matter propaganda about an alleged epidemic of white racism contributes to a divide in society, and could encourage vulnerable people to further feel the cards are stacked against them.

Black Lives Matter has not renounced violence committed in its name. Two months ago an African-American man who tortured and executed two Caucasian teens made a Black Lives Matter speech at his sentencing. There are multiple instances of Black Lives Matter protesters beating pedestrians. Black Lives Matter protesters have destroyed both public and private property across the country.

Several parents have suggested that if the grade school must do a march and rally, they should switch the theme to “All Lives Matter.” Some parents quietly express reservations. Multiple parents have met with the director to suggest a more inclusive event. However, the school is not backing down.

The school’s director John Heffernan has quashed dissenting views on the school’s parents’ Facebook page. One parent has informed all the other parents, “The students will be wearing Black Lives Matter t-shirts during the march on Thursday.” An anonymous donor has provided shirts for the students. Though the school has has invited parents and others to this public event, it has asked them in writing not to make or wear All Lives Matter shirts.

Black Lives Matter promotes antagonism against people of a different race based on their belief of the innate characteristics of the other race. This is the traditional, standard-dictionary definition of racism. Alveda King, the niece of civil rights icon Martin Luther King, says that the tactics employed by the Black Lives Matter movement do not represent the principles for which her uncle stood. Mrs. King recently said, “Of course black lives matter, all lives matter.”

The methods employed by Black Lives Matter have been racially polarizing. Parents at the school have asked for the Durham Police Department to be on hand for the children’s protection. Self-proclaimed radical educators dragging children into this ugly and sometimes deadly melee is wrong by any standard.