Ryerson Public School sign defaced ahead of renaming consultation

The name of Egerton Ryerson no longer appears outside a north London public school in southwestern Ontario after it was spray-painted and the board decided to remove the letters ahead of a debate to rename the school. 

Last week, Ryerson school council met and expressed support for the name Ryerson Public School, on Waterloo Street, to be changed.

Its namesake lived in the early 1800s and was instrumental in the creation of Canada's residential school system. There have been growing calls from communities across the province to rename institutions that bear his name. 

Earlier this month, after a rally held in response to the preliminary discovery of the remains of at least 215 Indigenous children buried on the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., the statue of Ryerson that stood outside the Toronto university named after him was brought down. 

The Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) will debate a motion next Tuesday that asks for a consultation process about the name change for the school, with participation from First Nations community members on the committee. 

Corrine Rahman, a trustee with the TVDSB who put the motion forward to start a consultation, said she'd had numerous conversations with community members on both sides of the debate. 

"The legacy of Egerton Ryerson has definitely been at the forefront of those conversations. My rationale [to put the motion forward] has to do with our naming policy ... and one of the tenets of that is that the name doesn't cause harm or make students feel unwelcome or uncomfortable," said Rahman.

"Whether the name stays or not, it's important that students understand what the legacy of Egerton Ryerson is," she added.

This week, vandals took matters into their own hands, defacing the Ryerson name on the sign.

The letters that spelled out his name and the crest beside it have been removed for cleaning after vandalism, the principal told the school community in a letter.