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Letters: White male school names in Richmond are "almost comical"

Richmond News reader Kim Nowitsky thinks school names should be changed to reflect the local "community"
Picture_of_Julian_Byng,_1st_Viscount_Byng_of_Vimy
Field Marshal Julian Hedworth George Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy, GCB, GCMG, MVO (11 September 1862 – 6 June 1935) was a British Army officer who served as Governor General of Canada

Dear Editor,

Re: “Stevestonite suggests renaming school to reflect local history,” News, Dec. 23.

Of course the Richmond School District should rename schools.

McRoberts, McNair, McMath, MacNeill, McKay and McNeely are just a few of the names of Richmond schools.

It’s almost comical how homogenous the names are. Of the 38 elementary schools in Richmond, 34 are named after British males, only 2/38 are women, only 2/38 of First Nation origin and one a Japanese male.

Similarly, 9/10 high schools have names of British male origin; Richmond High represents our actual city. Zero of First Nation origin. Women also zero. In short, of our 48 public schools, 43 are named after British males. The disparity speaks for itself.

At the end of June, I also addressed the school board, asking them to consider renaming schools and adopting a more inclusive policy when choosing the names for new schools.

Some board members justified the names with “they were named a long time ago.”

Whether they were named five or 50 years ago doesn’t make the current or past practice less racist or less sexist.

The question is not whether the people deserved to have schools named after them or not.

Instead, we need to question the lack of diversity, in that our schools only represent a narrow segment of the population and have failed to include First Nation’s people, people of colour or women.

At the school level, I know many of our educators do a wonderful job at promoting truth, inclusion and diversity.

However, it would be more than a symbolic gesture from the board to acknowledge how the names of our schools disproportionately represent one group and acknowledge that it’s important for kids to see themselves represented.

As a community, we can do better. Maintaining the status quo is no longer acceptable.

Kim Nowitsky

RICHMOND