(CFJC Today)

By Troy Gillard

Flags to fly at half-mast

Red Deer Public students, staff to wear orange shirts following Kamloops residential school discovery

May 30, 2021 | 8:46 PM

With the discovery of the bodies of 215 children at a former residential school in Kamloops, students and staff across Red Deer Public Schools are being asked to consider wearing orange shirts, a symbol of the residential school legacy and that every child matters, on Monday.

Outdoor flags across Red Deer Public Schools will also be lowered to half-mast.

“The flag lowering and the wearing of orange shirts honours every child sent to residential schools whose life was impacted or tragically taken and in honour of the families whose lives were forever changed by the Indian residential school system,” Superintendent Chad Erickson said Sunday in an email to parents.

The grim discovery at the former school near Kamloops, B.C. was announced Thursday by the Tk’emlups te Secwépemc people after the site was examined by a team using ground-penetrating radar.

Some of the remains belong to children as young as three years old, but the causes and timing of their deaths are not yet known.

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The Kamloops Indian residential school was established in 1890 under the leadership of the Roman Catholic church, and closed in 1978.

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