A trustee for the Greater Essex County District School Board stormed out after a Special Board Meeting at 6 p.m. - appalled by the process to change part of the name for the new K-12 school in Kingsville.
Trustee Cathy Cooke refused to return for the public meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday night, stating she was so disappointed, and she had some strong words to say which were applauded by a small group of the public.
A Special Board Meeting was held with a recommendation to change the name Erie Migration Academy to Erie Migration District School after backlash from the community on a vulgar acronym for the school was brought to light.
The recommendation was moved by trustee Julia Burgess - who was the trustee that put forward the original name for the school - and seconded by trustee Kim McKinley.
Burgess explained during the meeting that this vulgar acronym was missed during the vetting process, and doesn't want future students and staff, or the community, to be involved with bullying that is associated with this acronym, and that this is a lesson learned.
Burgess asked to call the question immediately - meaning that there would be no debate or comments allowed on the recommendation - which needed two-thirds approval. The vote to call the question immediately passed 7-3, moving it to final vote.
The recommendation to change the school name passed 7-3, with trustee Cooke, trustee Armstrong, and trustee Linda Qin opposed.
Trustee Cooke says this was a mess and a way to shut everybody up.
"They didn't want trustees to talk, they didn't want to hear anything from anybody in the community, all they wanted to do was shove it through and that's what they did. And it was wrong. It's wrong to the trustees, but more than that it's wrong to the community."
She says all this did was brush the issue under a rug.
"It's an acknowledgement that this is a mess. That this was a mess and somebody is trying to back pedal to make it better. But you know what? It should've been sent back to the committee and worked with the community to come up with a name, and it wasn't."
She adds that she doesn't know what the future will be like.
"Honestly I don't know what I'm going to do moving forward. Do I want to belong to this board? I honestly don't know. I don't know. I am so disappointed at what happened. It's a mess, and it's wrong."
Emmerson Jadischke, a grade 11 student at Kingsville District High School, says she's thankful that trustee Cooke spoke out.
"I'm really proud of her, and I'm really proud that she's one of the trustees. And I'm just really grateful for all of them that stood up and supported us."
Jadischke adds that she doesn't think there will be any more student walk-out's but they may go higher up.
"I feel like maybe that's not the way to go anymore since that didn't work out, and that wasn't listened to. But maybe we can reach higher than that."
Trustee Nancy Armstrong also did not return for the public meeting Tuesday evening.
Trustee Burgess denied to comment following the Special Meeting.
This school on Jasperson Road in Kingsville will bring together students from Jack Minor, Kingsville Public, Harrow Public, and Kingsville District High School.