Today, our students wore orange to honour those who attended Residential and Day School. Our students attended an assembly where they learned a little about the history of residential schools and their impacts on our people.
We believe it's important for our students to learn about this history.
Every year on this day, we recall Phyllis Webstad's story of her first day at residential school. Phyllis was so excited to wear a new shiny orange shirt to her first day of school, but it was taken from her upon arrival. It was never returned to her. The colour orange has always reminded her of that time and everything else residential school took from her and her family. Phyllis is a third-generation residential school survivor - her grandmother and mother both attended residential school for ten years.
There were 140 federally run residential schools across Canada. They operated from 1831 to 1998 - the last school closing less than 25 years ago.
Please join us in wearing orange on Friday in honour of Indian Residential School survivors and all those who never made it home. Every child matters.
