Marlborough schools hope flag displays continue conversations about addiction

September 29, 2021

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By Dakota Antelman, Managing Editor

Marlborough High School students install flags late last week. Photo/Courtesy Marlborough Public Schools, Facebook — Marlborough High School students install flags late last week.
(Photo/Courtesy Marlborough Public Schools, Facebook)

MARLBOROUGH – Students at Marlborough High School and Whitcomb Middle School installed thousands of purple flags on their campuses on Sept. 23 and Sept. 27, respectively.

The displays are part of a larger effort in both schools to talk about addiction and drug overdose with students and their families.

“It’s helping us call attention to something that is very real for our community and our students,” MHS principal Dan

Riley said in an interview with the Community Advocate late last week.

The purple flags memorialize lives lost to overdoses.

At the high school, the flags stood alongside a trailer by the group Team Sharing, which seeks to help parents understand the warning signs of youth drug use. Team Sharing representatives were on hand during the high school’s curriculum night last week. There, they met with parents and walked them through their trailer display.

“It’s a great opportunity for education for our parents,” Riley said of all this.

Just a few steps down Bolton Street, meanwhile, Whitcomb Middle School showcased a video for students on the morning of Sept. 27 discussing the impacts of the opioid epidemic and substance use disorder.

Students then filed outside to install their own flags on their campus.

“They’re at such a pivotal moment when they’re middle school that we hope that these conversations are reaching them, and reaching their families and providing support so that they know where they can go to get help,” Whitcomb Principal Angela House told the Community Advocate.

School officials worked hand in hand with Team Sharing as well as local addiction awareness advocate Kathy Leonard.

Flags wave on the lawn of the Walker Building in Marlborough before a past year’s overdose awareness vigil. Photo/Courtesy Kathy Leonard — Flags wave on the lawn of the Walker Building in Marlborough before a past year’s overdose awareness vigil.
(Photo/Courtesy Kathy Leonard)

Just a matter of weeks after Leonard hosted her annual, much larger flag display and vigil in downtown Marlborough, Riley and House noted the unique focus and benefit of the displays now appearing at their schools.

“If we go back five plus years, I don’t think we were talking about it enough,” Riley said. “This really helps to put it front and center and it gives us a visual representation of the struggle that we continue to have with this crisis.”

“Our goal is to ensure that we are setting them up to be as successful as possible,” House added. “Part of that is informing them of things that maybe are outside of the school day, outside of academics and our core subjects.”

Overdose awareness vigil grows for its third year – Community Advocate

Moms turn grief into recovery through local support group – Community Advocate