School Law and Ethics Chapter 8

Teachers’ Rights and Responsibilities Applying for a job…asking about your long range plans Sexual harassment Personal lifestyle…significantly disrupt the educational process or erode credibility with students, colleagues, or the community Use of controlled substances

Teachers’ Rights and Responsibilities Balancing personal liberty and community standards:homosexual advances to non- students, sex with students, encouraging students to attend certain religious meetings, allowing students to drink alcohol, not living within the district NOT: smoking marijuana, private homosexual behavior, adultery, vulgar language, AIDS or disability, obesity

Teachers’ Rights and Responsibilities Academic freedom…limited Legal liability…negligence Misfeasance…failure to conduct in an appropriate manner Nonfeasance…failure to perform Malfeasance…not lawful regardless, to do Educational malpractice…academic damage

Teachers’ Rights and Responsibilities Copyright Act: fair use…brevity, spontaneity, cumulative effect (9 instances per class, per semester) Video tapes…45 days, showing once Labor rights…the right to organize Internet…schools usually have guidelines

Students’ Rights and Responsibilities Student records: Buckley Amendment, parents and guardians Awards…sex can’t be used as a criterion Suspension and discipline…due process Zero tolerance policies Corporal punishment Freedom of speech

Students’ Rights and Responsibilities School prayer…student led at public events forbidden Search and seizure…fewer restrictions than the police: in loco parentis Censorship of school newspapers HIV-infected students Sexual harassment…gap between intentions and student perceptions

Teaching and Ethics Mandatory Reporting: physical abuse, sexual molestation, neglect (medical, educational or physical), emotional abuse Moral education…inculcation, values clarification, character education, moral stages of development