Members of the Peel Advocacy group have expressed outrage over the recent policy that prohibits naming schools after any individual.
Their outrage is hinged on the fact that the policy would mean plans to dedicate a new centre to a local campaigner, Kola Iluyomade, who was a staunch fighter for Black students and their rights, and a fierce advocate would be scrapped.
Plans had been on the way to name the building after Kola Iluyomade, an advocate for the Black community who lived in Mississauga and died in 2021.
Reports have it that on April 27, 2023, Trustees approved a policy that banned the naming of schools after individuals. No provisions or considerations were made to account for all of the work and extensive consultations that had been undertaken in deciding the name “Kola Iluyomade Centre For Black Excellence”
It was gathered that during a committee meeting on May 3, senior Peel school board staff recommended the new centre for Black excellence be christened without the advocate’s name. The recommendation would bring it in line with a new policy that prohibits buildings from “being named after an individual,” staff said.
Idris Orughu, a local advocate who worked with Iluyomade to draw attention to issues at the board in recent years said “All along we’ve been working in good faith with the board and in all of their correspondence to us, the structure was called ‘Kola Iluyomade,’ so we had no reason to believe (the new naming policy) would be implemented on an agreed-upon name”.
It is germane to note that the board naming policy is part of a series of directives that were brought in after the Ontario government took over Peel District School Board to investigate allegations of anti-Black racism, Islamophobia and discrimination.
Remarkably, the board has renamed some schools as part of ongoing reviews, including one named after Sir John A MacDonald, Canada’s first prime minister.
In a statement, members of the group Advocacy Peel, which has campaigned against anti-Black racism at the Peel District School Board, said they have spent almost two years working on the new centre for Black excellence. They argued that the building itself was their idea and they were not told Iluyomade’s name would be removed at any point.
Paula Hylton, chair of Advocacy Peel, said in a statement that “The message from the PDSB is that if they can no longer name a building after a White supremacist, they will refuse to name one after a Black man who advocated for Black children”.
In a swift move, the group has launched a petition urging the Peel school board to maintain Iluyomade’s name.
However, PDSB chair David Green argued that “no promise” was made to name the building after Iluyomade, saying a motion to that effect does not exist.
Meanwhile, a report by Peel school board staff states, “In June 2022, the PDSB announced a commitment to honour community activist Kola Iluyomade in the naming of the Centre.”
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