Catholic school community pushes for name change

Members of the Jean Vanier Catholic High School community held a rally Monday urging school board trustees to reconsider the renaming of their school, before graduation.
Students in the graduating class are hoping that a new school name will appear on their graduation diplomas, rather than that of the school’s disgraced namesake.
Vanier, was a Canadian philosopher and theologian, who founded L’Arche International, a network of care communities and projects that support people with intellectual disabilities around the world. In February, less than a year after his death, it came to light that the late Vanier had initiated abusive sexual relationships with women (without disabilities) usually in the context of spiritual accompaniment.
Students and parents in attendance said a proper process was followed, landing on the community-preferred name of Our Lady of the Bay Catholic High School, in honour of The Virgin Mary. They were dismayed when trustees defeated the new name in a tie vote at their April meeting. They were further dismayed when trustees shut down their May meeting so they wouldn’t have to hear a scheduled delegation.
At Monday’s rally, students smiled and waved from a parade of honking vehicles, baring signs and balloons, that threaded through a Collingwood neighbourhood towards the school on Collins Street.
Grade 12 student Fiona McMaster (pictured) was at the head of the parade. Her sign read, “We want to be graduates of Our Lady of the Bay.”
“It’s kind of unfair,” she said. “They asked us for the vote and we gave it to them and then they shut it down.”
She said the rally was a way of trying to have the voices of the graduating class heard by trustees.
“I don’t want to graduate from a nameless school, or worse, one with the current name.”
“It has been very discouraging,” said Marcel Charlebois, whose daughter Izabelle is graduating from the school this month.
He said a proper process was followed, people voted, but he feels that trustees brought their personal views to the table.
“We are trying to some together as a Catholic community,” he said, adding that this affects all three Catholic church parishes; St. Mary’s, St. Patrick in Stayner and Noel Chabanel in Wasaga Beach.
“It has become a little bit embarrassing,” said Charlebois. “Our biggest fear is that if this doesn’t get resolved the name will be on their diplomas. That will follow them through their adulthood. “We need this so we can all move forward and be proud of the new name.”
“It’s important to have a school name you can get behind,” said Grade 10 student Lachlan Craig.
At Wednesday’s meeting the name was initially defeated in a 4-4 tie, just like the first time around. But during a strange twist of motions the ability to confirm a new name was placed in the hands of staff, which could very well result in the name Our Lady of the Bay Catholic High School being used.
Two trustees, Maria Hardie and Peter Fracassi, were adamant that it was not the role of the trustees to approve school names, even though that is how it has been done in the past.
“I believe the Jean Vanier re-naming issue was entirely mishandled…” said Fracassi. “The trustees were used as scapegoats. This has resulted in the community being totally ignored. Instead of fixing the problem the administration dragged their heels and left matters unresolved. They left trustees to be blamed for all this by the community when in fact it was a lack of leadership.”
Fracassi, who is the trustee for this area, and Hardie, both voted against an initial motion to hand the naming approval over to staff but Fracassi supported the idea on a second similar motion, allowing it to pass.
While those involved tried to focus on the process and not the name itself, trustees did appear to express preference for another name when Fracassi put forward a motion to name the school after St. Elizabeth Seton. That vote was narrowly defeated because one of the trustees on the opposition side didn’t want to foist a name on the school community.
Fracassi said he has been harassed, defamed, intimidated, bullied, threatened and shamed throughout this process, including profane phone calls and drive-bys at his house.
He then accused teachers of trying to influence students during the vote, based on accounts from the “silent majority.” He said teachers manipulated the results of the election, and claimed the parish priest was left out of the process.
It remains to be seen how quickly the name will be changed and if students will get their wish to graduate from a school with a name they can be proud of.