A.W. Neill School is history.
The School District 70 board of education voted unanimously last night to remove the controversial name, and begin the process of finding a new name for the school.
Trustee Rosemarie Buchannan who championed the renaming when it was first raised six years ago, says it has been a long time coming.
“Nobody’s rewriting history, we are correcting an incorrect history that was recorded wrongly,” she said. “I’m really glad that our School District isn’t into erasing history, they made history tonight and I’m really proud of this board.”
In a survey conducted by the district, 116 supported the change while 8 were against.
Neill was the area Member of Parliament through the 1920’s and 30’s supported Indian Residential Schools and the internment of Japanese-Canadians.
Eiko Eby from the National Association of Japanese Canadians has been following the issue, and was at the meeting to congratulate the School District on their decision.
“It was a racist time but Mr. Neill was still pretty extreme, so this is quite a victory here,” she said.
While there is no timeline for the name change, the School District will form a committee to develop a list of names and make recommendations to the board.
The district also suggested changing the name of Ucluelet Secondary to be more inclusive of students from Tofino, Tla-o-qui-aht and Ahousaht, but west coast residents voted 104-41 against.
A proposal to change the School District name to Alberni-Pacific Rim, was tabled for a later discussion.
