Category: Focus

Lindsay Moir trained to be a travel guide when he retired from the Ministry of Education in 1997. He had been with the ministry for 31 years in various jobs dealing with education for students with special needs, and it was time for something different. But Moir never got around to his retirement plans. Parents of children with special needs kept calling him for help when their kids got into trouble at school.

Ayan Karshe used to be the “violent one.” She’ll tell you that herself. But it’s hard to believe when you shake the gentle hand of the 16-year-old, as she makes her way out the front doors of Ridgemont High School in Ottawa’s south end.

Milka Gebrekiduce is a thoughtful little girl. The Grade 2 student wears a brilliant pink sweater and twirls one of her many braids around her finger. Her brown eyes grow a bit more serious as she recalls a painful memory: she hurt her tooth last year after being knocked down by an older boy running across the playground.

When the Conservative government implemented the Safe Schools Act in 2001, the education minister’s message was one of restoring “respect and responsibility” in Ontario schools.