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Langley School District to lower flags in recognition of unmarked Indigenous graves

The flags will be lowered for an indeterminate amount of time at all school facilities
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Langley School District’s board office. (Langley Advance Times files)

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.

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.

READ MORE: B.C. First Nation confirms more than 160 unmarked graves found on grounds near former residential school


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Matthew Claxton

About the Author: Matthew Claxton

Raised in Langley, as a journalist today I focus on local politics, crime and homelessness.
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