COCHRANE— Celebrating diversity and inclusion, RancheView School GSA club members marked the end of the school with the creation of a Progress Flag crosswalk.
RancheView School Principal Sharon Cronin said the GSA club has been working to find a way to honour the LGBTQ2S+ community for a number of years.
“The kids got talking about what they see on different sidewalks around the Calgary area, around Canada. Really it was an informal conversation about wouldn’t it be neat if we tried this,” Cronin said. “It just came to fruition as we had some conversations.”
The student-led GSA club was established about three years ago. In its first year, the club talked about flying a Pride Flag in front of the school and this conversation evolved into the creation of the crosswalk.
The Progress Flag was created using acrylic non-permanent paint and installed by cohorts from the GSA Club. Different classes took turns painting the flag to bring the crosswalk to life.
“It just makes my heart glad when you know kids are inspired and engaged with it,” Cronin said, explaining how exciting it was to see the students take the lead on such a meaningful project.
The Progress Flag is a six-stripe rainbow design that features a chevron with black, light blue, pink, brown and white stripes representing marginalized people of colour, trans individuals and those living with HIV/AIDS.
“They [the students] were quite excited about the possibility of having everybody included in this,” Cronin said.
It took about two and half hours to create the piece on Wednesday (June 23). About 25 youth from Grades 5 to 8 in the GSA Club participated in the installation.
While the GSA Club has been active throughout the school year hosting virtual meetups, the installation was also momentous because it was the first time this year the GSA Club has been able to come together in-person as a full club.
“It was such a beautiful experience to watch them sitting around talking [as the flag was painted] … It was fantastic to see the teamwork,” Cronin said.
One of the more significant parts of creating the flag was the conversations the crosswalk sparked between the students. As the youth worked to complete the art piece they engaged in deep and impactful discussions about what the flag meant to them.
“Myself and the other few adults that were there really had no idea the impact that this had on the children,” Cronin said. “Some of them said, ‘This truly means that we are included,’ it makes me well up when I think about it. It was such a powerful moment.”
When the installation was finished was amazing to see the students visit the site, she said, and some students started crying because the flag meant so much to them.
RancheView School has worked hard to foster a culture that honours and celebrates inclusion, Cronin said, and the installation of the Progress Flag crosswalk is another way to foster these discussions.
“[It's about] Talking about LGBTQ2S+ community and just helping everybody to understand that everybody matters and everybody is welcome here,” Cronin said. “It [the flag] was a symbol from the kids to the kids to say that not only do we talk about it, but we’re showing it.”
Cronin said the school's GSA Club is now exploring the possibility of flying the Pride Flag or Progress Flag next year.
The crosswalk is proving popular with the community, she said, and community members continue to visit the school to see the installation and take photos.
“It’s just been nothing but positive comments that we’ve been receiving from the community," Cronin said.
