Estevan Comprehensive School shows its pride

Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS) held its inaugural pride flag raising ceremony Thursday, where students, teachers and local dignitaries gathered in solidarity of the LGBTQ community.

Those who attended took in speeches, enjoyed barbecue and raised the rainbow pride flag, declaring ECS and the City of Estevan as safe, inclusive places for all people.

Student Tyler Knibbs addressed the audience of roughly 50, speaking to how his school and city are great places to be for diverse groups of people and how proud he is to be apart of both.

Prior to the speeches Knibbs told the Mercury, “Essentially we’ve all come here to show our pride, all the students, all the teachers… then we’re going to raise the pride flag; it’s been really interesting, I’ve never seen anything like this at a school, and it makes me proud to be a student here.”

Standing before the crowd he told the story of how he came out to his parents, how worried he was about it, and ultimately, how he had nothing to fear in the first place.

Knibbs explained the reluctance he felt breaking the news and how he lived with the secret for a long while, before his father finally revealed he’d already known for some time, bringing a round of good-natured laughter from those in attendance.

“Two years, 11 months and 22 days later I would come to realize I had the world’s most accepting parents, that I had the world’s best friends and that I had a school where I could walk in the front doors and be proud of who I am,” he said.

“In the 11 years that I’ve been in Estevan, Saskatchewan, learning in the Southeast Cornerstone Division, I have yet to come across any major legitimate hate toward diverse people, so this just goes to say in an accepting community such as this one, you’re loved just the same.”

Jodi Tweed, ECS student service counsellor and an advisor with the school’s Gay Straight Alliance (GSA), told the Mercury how important the event was because it showed support, inclusion and acceptance of all students.

This is also the inaugural year for the school’s GSA, a division-wide initiative for Southeast Cornerstone with more than 50 people registered at ECS alone, and Tweed said the division has done an excellent job of promoting the alliance and showing students they’re safe within its school.

She added people who are gender diverse exist in all parts of the community, in the forms of students, friends and family members, making the flag raising ceremony an especially important event.

“I hope they (attendees) realize that there is an (LGBTQ) community and there is support behind them, that while we’re new to the pride movement, there definitely is recognition in the school division, in our school itself and in our community,” said Tweed.

“That there is support and that there are people that understand, are accepting and that we feel that we feel everybody belongs.”

Also on hand was Laura Budd, education coordinator for Moose Jaw Pride and the Saskatchewan Pride Network, the organizations that helped facilitate the event and others like it for smaller urban centres in the province.

She said she’s been getting to help be apart of LGBTQ history in the making on a regular basis in Saskatchewan and was excited to see the students’ faces when they raised the pride flag, knowing something they identify with is now a bigger part of their school experience.

“I think what people can take away is that Saskatchewan, and Canada, is an inclusive place, that love is in fact love, and that we love and respect each other and we want all people in our communities to feel safe and welcome, to be who they are, and love who they love, ” she said.

“I’m just really thankful to be here in Estevan, to get to know the people and to share with them what we do in the Saskatchewan Pride Network in offering pride support, helping people with language and inclusion.”

Budd also delivered a speech by the flag where she mentioned how the world is becoming more progressive, and how it wasn’t always that way.

“We have had people that do not understand the LGBT community, or the Rainbow Alphabet Soup that we like to call ourselves, but we are apart of your community,” she said.

“We always have been, but we have been hidden from you out of our own safety. (Our own) physical and emotional protection; we now have protections in law in Saskatchewan, in Canada, to tell us that we are safe, to tell us we are loved and people are coming forward as allies to tell us the same.”

Religious organizations are now coming forward and admitting mistakes, she added, and these organizations want to be part of future where progress and social justice are headed.

One of the local dignitaries at the ceremony was deputy chief Murray Cowan of the Estevan Police Service (EPS).

Cowan joked he thought Budd was going to ruin his speech by addressing the laws involving equality and freedom of expression, which would have left him with less material of his own to add to the party.

“Laura, you almost stole my thunder,” he said, bringing in more laughs from the crowd.  

“You started to talk about law a little bit, I wrote a couple of points down because they were important points I wanted to make today and I went, holy smokes, don’t take my thunder away - so I’m glad you didn’t do it too bad Laura.”

Those points involved the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the fact that no one should be denied work, be disadvantaged, harassed -and given it was a school event - bullied in any way, shape or form.

These values apply to people of all genders, gender expressions, religions and ethnic backgrounds, Cowan said.

He pointed to the laws in place protecting all citizens from being refused these rights and ensured the EPS is committed to enforcing these laws both on the criminal and local level.

“Because we have bylaws in place when it comes to things like bullying, so that’s extremely important and that applies of course to everyone,” he said.

“All these rights apply to everybody and that’s of course everybody in the LBGTQ community as well. All of us.”

The ECS event was held as part of Estevan and Weyburn Pride Week, which featured numerous events around the Energy City from May 23-28, including a previous flag raising and cake cutting at City Hall, postcard making at the Estevan Art Gallery and Museum, a concert by musician Rachel Elizabeth and a service at St. Giles Anglican Church.