Pride flags to be flown at GECDSB elementary schools during Pride month

Four years after they were mandated at every public high school in Windsor-Essex, pride flags will soon be flying above elementary schools in the region during Pride month in June.

Julia Burgess, vice-chair of the board and trustee for the towns of Kingsville and Essex, tabled a motion on the matter which passed at Tuesday evening's board meeting.

"This has grown the same way as the raising of the flag at high schools," Burgess told Afternoon Drive host Chris dela Torre before the meeting. "The kids have asked for it."

While some elementary schools raise the rainbow flag already, others hang it indoors, while others don't hang it at all.

"Administration particularly, and staff, they like to get the direction from policy," Burgess said when asked why some elementary schools currently decline to display the flag at all.

"When they don't know what to do, they generally defer to something that's safe — in other words, 'we'd better not.'"

"So this just gives some direction ... this is just another way of having a visible symbol saying that everyone is welcome."

Elizabeth Laughton, a student at Giles Campus French Immersion Public School in Windsor, agrees with the proposal.

"I think it's important to put up the flag," she said. "It represents everybody, and how everybody is different but the same, at the same time."

Laughton added she would like to see the pride flag flown all year, instead of just June.

With the passing of the motion, Windsor-Essex PrideFest, which currently supplies pride flags for high schools, will provide flags to elementary schools as well.

The flags must be raised for a minimum of one week.