My interest in the intersection of law and education began with my return to graduate school in Vancouver, Canada, as a mature student. I had worked at law firms for about twenty years while raising two children. As they reached their teens, I returned to university to pursue an academic career. The Centre of Education, Law and Society at Simon Fraser University, spearheaded by Professor Michael Manley-Casimir, provided an opportunity, under his mentorship and that of Dr. Roland Case, an active member of the centre, to study the range of ways in which the law (normative, legislative, and judicial) affects every aspect of school life and ultimately shapes policy decisions and educational practices resulting from those decisions.

As my children went through school, there were several incidents in which they were bullied by peers but received little intervention on the part of school administrators and teachers. This led me to study, as part of my doctoral work, the legal obligations of schools to address bullying. At that time, the Internet was not as powerful as it is now, and cyber-bullying did not exist. However, I had already learned about the challenges schools face in navigating stakeholder rights and interests relating to freedom of expression, equality, and safety. These challenges became evident during my master's degree study of a controversial court case involving the banning of three children's books recommended for discussion of same-sex parents in kindergarten classrooms.