.png;w=960)
The Halton District School Board (HDSB) has decided to leave the name Iroquois Ridge High School (IRHS) as it is, following months of further consultation with local indigenous communities.
The name change discussion was originally brought to the table during a board meeting in March 2024 when a community member submitted an incomplete report to the board stating that the term "Iroquois" was offensive.
The meeting in March also discussed the board having consulted with treaty partners who confirmed that the name was offensive and should be changed.
A motion was passed to initiate the renaming process on March 6, 2024.
Read more here: Renaming an Oakville high school comes with a price of $250,000
Following public backlash, including from local Indigenous communities, the board rescinded the motion and determined that further consultation was needed before going through with the name change.
Read more here: HDSB decides more consultation needed before renaming Iroquois Ridge High School
During a meeting on Sept. 10, 2024, trustees decided to keep the name of Iroquois Ridge High School after reviewing a report that found no consensus among communities on whether the name should be changed.
According to the report, "Staff consulted and gathered feedback from self-identified Indigenous families within the HDSB, Indigenous scholars, Indigenous elders, members of Six Nations of the Grand River, members of Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, as well as advisors from the Ministry of Education, on the rationale for renaming Iroquois Ridge High School."
The report presented to the trustees stated, "To date, the feedback received has consistently revealed divergent perspectives on this matter. Some individuals recommend that the term 'Iroquois' remain, as it aligns with their individual identity, while others view the term as outdated and pejorative, and suggest that it would be beneficial to replace it."
When trustees asked for his recommendation, HDSB Director of Education Curtis Ennis said "I think that in order to necessitate the healing, bringing people together, not causing further harm, it would be my recommendation support for leaving things as they are at this time."
Trustee Tanya Rocha proposed a motion to erect a plaque at IRHS providing historical context about the school's name, but the motion was defeated.
Trustees did agree with Rocha's additional recommendation that context behind IRHS's name be added to the Our Schools section on the HDSB website where other schools have information about their names.
"I think that this process has really taught us that we can't solely rely on the word of one group when it comes to matters that are indigenous," said Trustee Rocha.
"We need to consult beyond our treaty partner, and I'm glad that further consultation was done and that these results were brought forward to us so that we can see that we as trustees should not be making decisions about Indigenous terms without speaking to the appropriate Indigenous people."
"I hope that our discussion is over, that the school will not be renamed and none of us are going to bring a motion to rename it," she continued. "If people are not in favour of a commemorative plaque, that's fine."
"As long as people who walk into the school realize where the name came from, why was the school named 'Iroquois Ridge' and give that history and that significance, because it's not just the school that's named Iroquois Ridge, there's a lot of other buildings and streets in that area that have the term Iroquois used, so it's a good education piece for the public at large."
The school was named Iroquois Ridge due to the land on which it was built. The shoreline of Lake Iroquois is still visible from Iroquois Shoreline Woods Park, which is just a four-minute drive from the school's current location.