Flags at Langley schools and district facilities will be lowered to half-mast starting this week in recognition of the ongoing discoveries of unmarked graves at former residential school sites.
The flags will be lowered for “an indefinite period of time,” according to the board’s announcement, following a motion passed Saturday, July 24.
“The Langley Board of Education acknowledges that many in our community are continuing to grieve as more unmarked graves are unearthed at former residential school sites across the country,” a statement by the board said.
The flags were all lowered as of Monday, July 26.
Thank you for the courage to do what is right!! https://t.co/NRlYUe2Lyc
— Cecelia Reekie (@cecelia_reekie) July 26, 2021
Flags at many other government and private facilities across Canada have been lowered since the discoveries of unmarked graves began in Kamloops earlier this summer, when the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc Nation announced the discovery of approximately 215 graves. Since then, hundreds more graves have been located by ground-penetrating radar scans in B.C. and Saskatchewan.
It was widely known, especially among First Nations communities, that many children had died and been buried while attending residential schools over the century they were in operation, but with hundreds of graves already discovered, the scale of the deaths is far more than what was previously recorded.
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