Gwinnett students place thousands of white flags for Georgia lives lost to COVID-19

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — The coronavirus pandemic is a defining moment for school children in metro Atlanta. One school in Gwinnett County wanted to remember all the Georgian lives lost to COVID-19.

For several hours Thursday, Gwin Oaks Elementary students placed thousands of flags up and down their school lawn.

Principal Craig Barlow came up with the idea as a way for students to learn the magnitude of the pandemic and also share the loss of loved ones.

“This is their way to say to their classmates, ‘This is my relative that passed away. This is chance for me to recognize them,’” Barlow said.

“Just pure sadness because it’s nothing like we’ve gone through before,” fifth-grader Chase McCard said.

Older students such as fifth grader Laney Stephenson helped out the younger kids with placing their flags.

“I’ve learned that COVID-19 is a really terrible virus and we need to be careful with it,” she said.

The flags will stay at the school through at least next week to give families from the neighborhood and those learning digitally to come by, take it all in and pay their respects.

“It’s going to be a little shocking for some people,” McCard said. “We are being respectful for the people who died.”

Barlow ordered over 10,000 flags, one flag for each victim, at the time the state hit the 10,000 deaths toil.

The week the students placed the flags turned out to be the deadliest week for COVID-19 in Georgia since the pandemic began.