Winnipeg School Division looks to community for renaming of Cecil Rhodes School

The Winnipeg School Division is looking for community input on a new name for Cecil Rhodes School.

In a Tweet Tuesday, the division said it will be accepting ideas for a new name until February 28.

The school's namesake was known for establishing the Rhodes Scholarship, but was also a white supremacist and settler colonialist, who is considered an architect of South Africa’s apartheid system.

The motion to change the school's name was brought forward in June 2020, amid worldwide calls to change the names of places, sports teams and buildings that have racist or colonial origins.

The school division said new name suggestions should honour the theme of Truth and Reconciliation. The division will not be considering any names of people – past or present.

Those who send in suggestions must include a rationale for the name, and include their contact information.

More information on how to submit a name suggestion can be found online.

-with files from CTV's Charles Lefebvre and Kayla Rosen