Letters for and against Kelly Road name change, pages 9-10 Cougar back after diabetic attack, page 13
Prince George Thursday March 5, 2020 Your community newspaper since 1916
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New name proposed for Hart high school Ted Clarke Citizen staff
Citizen Photo by James Doyle
Protesters hold up signs on Saturday morning at the corner of Highway 16 West and Ferry Avenue during a rally in opposition of the proposed name change to Kelly Road Secondary School.
Students protest name change
Arthur Williams Citizen staff
Approximately 100 students from Kelly Road Secondary School took to the streets last week to protest the proposed name change for the replacement school currently under construction. Students waved hand-made signs and chanted “keep our name,” while passing drivers honked in support. “I woke up this morning and people had all over their feeds they are changing the name of the school,” rally organizer and Kelly Road student Gloria Butcher said. “I just thought, ‘no it’s not.’ Kelly Road is part of the community and doesn’t need a name change. I want to graduate from Kelly Road, just like my father.” Last Tuesday, the School District 57 board of trustees unanimously approved a motion by trustee Trent Derrick to engage in the renaming process, after the board was approached by two Lheidli
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T’enneh First Nation elders. Elders Kenora Stewart and Clifford Quaw, accompanied by Lheidli T’enneh Chief Clay Pountney, requested the new school be named Shas Ti Secondary School. The name means ‘grizzly path” and would reflect the area’s past as a grizzly bear habitat. The new $44.3 million school will hold 900 students and will replace the original Kelly Road built in the early 1960s. Butcher said it doesn’t matter what the new name is, it was suddenness and lack of consultation students were unhappy with. “We just woke up and found out,” she said. “I think it would be different if they’d held a vote in the school.” Many student athletes with the Kelly Road Roadrunners just got new jerseys, which all would have to be replaced, she added. Alexander Gogolin said student opposi-
tion isn’t about racism or anti-Indigenous sentiment. “I’m Cree, but I disagree with the name change. Kelly Road has been the name for over 50 years,” Gogolin said. “My sister graduated from Kelly Road, and I want to graduate from Kelly Road too.” Graduating from Kelly Road is a family tradition for Tristan Sitoski, who has five family members – including his grandmother and grandfather – who attended the school. “I don’t think it’s right it’s going to change without giving people any say,” Sitoski said. Grade 11 students Mackenzie Crerar and Farrah Normand said changing the name won’t affect the members of the school board, but it does matter to the students who attend there and take part in sports and extra- curricular activities. “They can tell us it’s not going to change anything, but it will change the character of the school,” Crerar said.
The Prince George school board is considering naming a new school being built to replace Kelly Road Secondary School to reflect the Hart Highway area’s history as a traditional grizzly bear hunting ground. Prince George school district vice-chair Trent Derrick forwarded the motion to begin those discussions, which was unanimously approved by trustees at last Tuesday’s public meeting following a presentation by the chief and elders of the Lheidli Tenneh First Nation who suggested the school be named Shas Ti Secondary School, instead of Kelly Road. Shas ti, in the Dakelh language, means “grizzly path.” “Part of reconciling is looking at the past before the past that some people know - I know we have our stories and those stories kind of haven’t been told,” said Lheidli T’enneh chief Clay Pountney. “I know name changes have happened before and a lot of people are very attached to Kelly Road. We don’t want to stir the pot, so we want to find a way to make it work. With the new school being built, it was a neat idea to kind of look at it and say, let’s look at how we used to name things and see how that will work with the community. “We’re not trying to rattle too much but we think it’s a really cool name and a really cool idea to be going in that direction.” Elders Clifford Quaw and Kenora Stewart told trustees about the centuries of tradition the Lheidli T’enneh people had picking berries along the trails between the Salmon River and the Cranbrook Hill campus where UNBC now sits and how they used that area to hunt grizzly bears for their hides. Quaw was encouraged by the board’s willingness to consider the name change and said it will involve a gradual process to gather community support. See NEW NAME, page 3