BARRHEAD - Barrhead Composite High School (BCHS) hosted several activities to commemorate and honour Truth and Reconciliation.
On Monday, Sept. 23, BCHS students and staff placed red and orange flags on the school's front lawn.
Each red flag placed by BCHS students and staff represented approximately 10 children who passed away as a consequence of residential schools. In total, BCHS placed 751 in the school's courtyard as memorials to represent the 7,509 children who never returned home.
BCHS principal Slade Sekulich stated in an address sent to individual classes that the orange flags placed by BCHS junior high staff and students represent the 3,200 children officially recognized by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015, while the red flags represent the 4,3009 additional unmarked graves that have been discovered in Canada as of 2021.
Christian churches, on direction and funding from the Canadian government, created residential schools as an attempt to both educate and convert Indigenous youth and to assimilate them into Canadian society. However, the schools disrupted lives and communities, causing long-term problems among Indigenous peoples. The last residential school closed in 1996. In the more than 160 years of residential schools, over 150,000 Indigenous schools attended residential schools.
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
