Happy June!

Happy June! 
As part of an action plan after the Yukon Catholic Schools PD Day on May 1st, the 3 Catholic schools are flying the Progressive Pride flag for the month of June. 

At our PD Day, we had a keynote address from Fr. James Martin, an internationally renowned Catholic priest doing focused work in the space of 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusion. Through gospel stories and his personal experience working in this field, he helped us understand the profound need for visible inclusion for this community in Catholic churches and schools.  He reiterated research regarding young people who identify in the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and who feel their school or church community don’t accept or include them— this community is at significantly higher risk for serious mental health struggles, including depression and suicide ideation, connected directly to not seeing themselves reflected in their world. 

Our Church’s world leader, Pope Francis, has publicly thanked and applauded Father James Martin for this important work, along with the organization that Fr. Martin has helped to create, https://outreach.faith/. The front-page article today is called “Can Catholics celebrate Pride Month? Yes, and here’s why.” 

Additionally, educators spent part of the Catholic PD Day looking at policies and actions of other jurisdictions that have publicly funded Catholic schools (namely, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto). These districts are responding to the ever-growing research around outcomes for youth in the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and these distracts have decided that an impactful and excellent first step is flying the Pride flag during pride month. It is well documented that this visual act of solidarity is significant for this marginalized and at-risk community. 
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The designer of this revamped Pride flag (Daniel Quasar) intended the colors to represent the following: the colored stripes represented the gay and lesbian community, the light blue, pink and white stripes represent trans and non-binary individuals and the brown and black ones represent marginalized People of Colour (POC) communities. When organizations fly this flag it is a statement of inclusion—“you are welcome in our space”. 

Note that the garden-style flagpole at the front door will be used to show our solidarity with other important causes throughout the school year. For example, we will fly The Survivors’ flag in September for Truth and Reconciliation month, a flag for veterans in November, the Black History flag in February for Black History month and a Franco-Yukonnais flag in May for Yukon Francophonie Day. St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Secondary School is committed to creating a community that supports equity, diversity and inclusion.    

Please do not hesitate to call the school at 667-5901 if you have any questions or concerns.  
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Blessings, 
The St. Francis of Assisi Admin Team, 
Alethea Wallace, A/Principal; Mia Ouellette, A/Vice-Principal; Janet Clarke, A/Vice Principal