Lethbridge schools planning to observe National Day of Truth and Reconciliation

The Holy Spirit Catholic School Division and Lethbridge School Divison will both be recognizing the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30.

Holy Spirit will be non-operational that day, Holy Spirit said in a press release.

“One of Holy Spirit Catholic School Division’s priorities is to ensure ‘First Nations, Metis, and Inuit education for all.’ We remain committed to infusing this knowledge into our curriculum throughout the school year. Also, as in past years, our schools will be participating in Orange Shirt Day / Every Child Matters events on September 29, 2021, which further provides opportunities to teach our students about the history and legacy of residential schools,” said the release.

In its own release, the Lethbridge School Divison said “This day provides an opportunity to recognize and commemorate the history of residential schools, and with that in mind, Sept. 30 will be a non-operational day for Lethbridge

School Division. There will be no classes and schools will be closed on that day as our Division, like many others throughout Alberta, seeks to engage in the process of truth and reconciliation.

“Residential schools not only mark our history but our community today,” said Christine Light, Board Chair, Lethbridge School Division. “Like other communities throughout Alberta and across Canada, we have students, staff, families and neighbours whose stories have been touched by personal experience or through memories shared by family members, of lives shaped and changed by the devastating separation from their families and being placed into life in a residential school. Lethbridge School Division believes it is imperative to face, reflect, learn and grow from this history to honour both those who experienced this atrocity first-hand as well as those who continue to bear the marks today. We desire to become a community who grows in understanding, sees with compassion and lives with an inclusive spirit.”