Dr. Victoria Pettis
Summer Cohort 2006
EDUL 6990
October 17, 2006
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EDUL 6990 Educational Ethics for Administrators (1 hour)
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NOTE: In the assignment below, I responded to
another group’s scenario. |
My Response to
Group Assignment 2
The Scenario:
You are a first-year assistant principal at a large high school, and you have been assigned a mentor to help you make the transition from the classroom to a school leadership position. This mentor is a longtime administrator with many friends in the community. Midway through the school year, you are involved in a discipline situation with a student who has been caught in possession of marijuana on campus.
You and your mentor meet with the student and the parents, and, in accordance with school district policy, suspend the student for several days. It just so happens that the parents of this student are good friends of your mentor, and one of the parents is also employed by the school district as an administrator at another school.
Two days after the incident you discover that, after you left the conference, your mentor promised the student’s parents that, even thought the child will have to stay home for a few days, he (the mentor) will ensure that the matter isn’t recorded on the child’s permanent discipline record. He promises to simply list the student as being absent from school on the days he is suspended. You check the records to verify all of this, and sure enough, this is exactly what had been done by the veteran administrator.
To further complicate the matters, the principal of your school is
in poor health and is away for the remainder of the school year on a medical
leave. In his absence, the school is essentially run “by committee,” with the
committee comprised of all the assistant principals, including your mentor.
Wow! I do not envy this first-year assistant
principal, but I do realize that any one of us could find ourselves in this
very situation during our first year as a new administrator. I think the
various case studies that we have all been presented with in our groups –
regardless of the complexity – require that we consult the Code of Ethics for
Government Service and the Professional Standards Commission’s Code of Ethics
for Georgia Educators before we make decisions.
First,
this student’s action alone was very serious. He not only violated school
district policy by having drugs in his possession but his actions were illegal.
The fact this administrator chose to remain part of the administrative team in
this matter represents a glaring conflict of
interest.
The mentor is good friends to the parents of the student, who violated school
district policy. Despite this relationship, he still chose to remain
part of the administrative team in this discipline situation. He should have recused
himself from this case altogether. If I was a teacher, parent, or student in
this school district and found out this administrator’s relationship to the
young man’s family and that he had anything to do the disciplinary
action to this student, I would feel angry and betrayed by the school district.
Even if I thought the disciplinary action was appropriate, the fact that the
administrator played a major role in this case would cause me to question the
integrity of both the school district and the administrator, because this
situation was allowed to happen.
Ethically,
the mentor has violated the rules V and VI of the Code of Ethics for Government
Service (O.C.G.A. 45-10-1). Rule V states that a person in government service
should: “Never discriminate unfairly by the dispensing of special favors or
privileges to anyone, whether for renumeration of special favors or privileges
to anyone, for himself or his family, favors or benefits under circumstances
which might be construed by reasonable persons as influencing the performances
as influencing the performance of his governmental duties.”
What
this administrator did in the name of extending a special favor is
reprehensible – especially when we look at what he did in basic terms: He gave
a “pothead” a mini-student holiday to relax at home (and perhaps buy and do
more “weed” in all this spare time) after he was found in possession of drugs
at school. This pothead was then promised by a family friend that his school
record would remain intact and unmarred by his decision to engage in illegal
and immoral behavior. Individuals who have drug problems need tough love by
friends and family to help them obtain and maintain sobriety. This student needed
to be held accountable for his actions. By offering this special favor, this
administrator has only enabled this student to continue in his drug use at his
school because now he knows the administrator has his back if he gets caught.
When
the mentor chose to promise the student’s parents that the student would stay
home but his attendance and discipline records would not show he had broken
school district policy, he violated Rule VI that states that any person in a
government office should: “Make no private promises of any kind binding upon
the duties of office since a government employee has no private word which can
be binding on public duty.”
In addition, when the assistant principal
found out that indeed the mentor had the student’s attendance to reflect he was
only absent and not suspended, the mentor violated Standard 4 of The Code of
Ethics for Educators, which defines unethical conduct in the domain of
Misrepresentation or Falsification as “falsifying, misrepresenting, omitting,
or erroneously” reporting information such as any submitted to federal or state
agencies, regarding the evaluation of students and/or personnel, and reasons for absences or leaves.
Finally,
the mentor’s participation in this disciplinary case violated Standard 10
(Professional Conduct) of The Code of Ethics for Educators, because he did NOT
demonstrate conduct “that follows generally recognized professional standards.”
According to the PSC, this administrator’s unethical conduct would be
considered “detrimental to the health, welfare, discipline or morals of
students.”
I think by not reporting this
student as being suspended, the school has just left it self open for other
cases that were handled in the past to resurface. It would certainly put into
question: Was this same procedure followed for every student?
First, I believe in the power documentation. I would copy all of
my files and notes. Second, I would set up a meeting with the superintendent
and the associate superintendent where I would inform them about everything happened.
This way I would be in the clear, and it would show that: 1) I have followed
the chain of command; and 2) I have not falsified any legal documents. Third, I
would seriously consider requesting a transfer to another school, because once
my mentor, who many friends in the community, finds out that I have discussed
this matter with the superintendent, it would probably be a very hostile place
to work.