Category: Focus

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.

Constable Sue is a celebrity at St. Clare Catholic School in Orleans. In the playground during morning recess, a pack of seven and eight-year-old girls crowd around the uniformed cop for hugs. Some even ask for an autograph.

Every year, during the first week of class, Peter Giuliani would collect his students’ money for book orders and field trips. He’d tuck it away in his desk drawer for safe keeping, along with the emergency scholastic fund. He was always upfront with the students and told them: here’s where the money is kept, if you’re going to steal it, you’ll do it.

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.