Safe and Inclusive Schools – Expensive...Quality Education – Priceless, for Everything Else There's Lawyers!

In this article, drawn from his keynote address to the 2008 annual conference of the Canadian Association for the Practical study of Law in Education, the author considers the contentions question of whether the law and its agents, namely, lawyers, tribunals and courts, have been a boon or a burden to education and educators, whether frontline teachers or administrators and policy makers. He concludes that there is much evidence that the jurisprudence produced by courts and tribunals and the cooperative spirit that he believes has grown between educators and lawyers have benefited education, in general, and students' rights in particular. While he acknowledges that much remains to be done, the author argues that the equality jurisprudence that has developed, particularly since the adoption of the Charter, has provided a beacon guiding educators toward the provision of more inclusive and respectful educational environments.