I fully support the name change for Prince Charles Secondary School (PCSS) in the spirit of reconciliation!
I was born in Creston in 1955 and am a PCSS Grad, Class of 1973. During the years I was in attendance, I almost never heard the school called by its full name. Instead, it was simply “PCSS”, and that is how I continue to identify with it—by the initials, not by the full name.
I was a teacher at David Thompson Secondary School in Invermere from 1982 to 2018, and when Creston teams came to town for tournaments, they were almost always referred to as simply “PCSS—Creston”, and rarely was “Prince Charles” in the picture. Yes, Mount Baker from Cranbrook was consistently called by its full name (as were LV Rogers from Nelson, J. Lloyd Crowe from Trail, and Mount Sentinel from South Slocan, among others), but PCSS remained just an abbreviation and a town to virtually all Invermere coaches. One coach of my vintage wasn’t even aware that the PC in the name stood for Prince Charles!
Might I respectfully suggest that the initials PCSS be maintained, but the words “Prince Charles” removed in favour of something more inclusive of all Creston-area students… say “Purcell Central Secondary School” or another (probably better) suggestion.
Uniforms bearing the abbreviation PCSS could continue to be used, former grads could still identify with the initials, and current students would have a new inclusive name to identify with.
Greg Constable, Invermere
