John A Macdonald was an architect of the residential school system in Canada. His racist, colonial approach to governance resulted in unimaginable trauma to Indigenous communities in Canada. The recent discovery of 215 murdered children in Kamloops is just the latest example of his shameful, murderous legacy. As such, it is unacceptable that the TDSB has a school named after him.

I am a teacher who spent 10 years teaching at the school at 2300 Pharmacy Ave. I also have two children who will be attending the school soon. The TDSB needs to remove the name Macdonald from the school.

Every day that his name is displayed at the school is a celebration of a man who said the following(and much more): "When the school is on the reserve the child lives with its parents, who are savages; he is surrounded by savages, and though he may learn to read and write his habits, and training and mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write. It has been strongly pressed on myself, as the head of the Department, that Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men."

I loved my time teaching at 2300 Pharmacy Ave. It's an excellent school with a wonderful student body, staff and community. The name of the school should reflect all that is good in the community and I want that to be reflected when my sons attend the school. Please support the petition to rename the school at 2300 Pharmacy Ave.

You can also make your thoughts known to Trustee James Li(James.Li@tdsb.on.ca), and Associate Director Curtis Ennis(Curtis.Ennis@tdsb.on.ca), who are involved with the TDSB's Governance and Policy Committee, and the Renaming Schools Reference Group, respectively.

**update: the TDSB responded to me about this petition and told me about the Renaming Schools Reference Group(which I knew about already and was referenced in this petition). This is not enough. The board can immediately remove the name from the school and then do the necessary consulting with the Reference Group to find a suitable replacement name.