The Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects the rights of all Canadians. Historically, Canadian legislation has allowed denominational schools to exercise the rights of the group over the individual rights of teachers. Denominational doctrine is used as a bona fide definition of moral conduct in these situations. In public schools, the standards of moral behaviour are less clear. In this article I investigate the role of the local community in setting moral standards for public schools by reviewing several court cases. I suggest that public school teachers may best protect their human rights by asserting their professional status through collective bargaining and peer review.