Name change considered for B.C. elementary school that commemorates racist politician

The issue of whether to rename a Port Alberni elementary school is once again rearing its head, three years after the idea was first raised by school board trustees.

A.W. Neill Elementary School is named after Alan Webster Neill, a local member of parliament who supported Indian residential schools, opposed Asian immigration to Canada and supported the internment of Japanese during the Second World War.

The school district announced Nov. 20 in a news release that the trustees were reviving the process to rename A.W. Neill Elementary School. 

The district's school trustees first discussed renaming the school in 2016. The discussion coincided with a failed 2017 city council bid to rename Neill Street, also named after A.W. Neill.

Times are different

But lot has changed in the past few years. 

Not only have trustees developed new school naming and renaming guidelines, which call for schools not to be named after people.

School board vice chair Rosemarie Buchanan also says times are different than in 2016, when she first broached renaming the school.

"I think we've learned some hard but good lessons since then about who should and shouldn't be honoured with namings and why," she said.

Buchanan says trustees are more aware of reconciliation through education initiatives.

Opinions split

Regardless of the school district's new naming guidelines, residents' opinions were split about renaming the school when it was reported by local radio and newspaper outlets. 

In an interview with CBC, Port Alberni resident John Zoet says he opposes renaming A.W. Neill elementary for historical and practical reasons.

"History is history, no matter what it is. Good or bad, it's there for a reason," he said. 

"If the bad history isn't shown too then people will think all was rosy and it wasn't."

Changing a school name costs money, and while the school district pays the bill, it's the taxpayers who underwrite it, something Zoet says he disagrees with. 

"That's my biggest beef with this: it always falls to the taxpayer and that's not right," he said. 

The suggested new name — either Kitsuksis Elementary School or Compton Elementary — will reflect the new guidelines, which say schools should be named after geography or location, said school board chair Pam Craig.

The renaming of A.W. Neill elementary is one of three suggested renamings in the district. The name of the district itself is also being reconsidered, as is the name of Ucluelet Secondary School. 

Public input is being gathered and a final decision is expected in 2020, Craig said.