Notes

What are the legal and ethical issues presented in this case.

In this case study of billy and Mr cole. I was able to point out one major legal issue. That is, after confronting billy about the vandalism and demands billy leaves the classroom. The issue here is that the teacher does not follow up. He does not explain to bully where to go, does not provide a note or guide him down, does not speak with admin or even ensure that billy arrived at the office. he simply asked Billy to leave and As a rsult, we find out that the student did not actually go to the office at all. This of course is a major issue. In the event that we do need to kick a student out of class, it is important to remember that as teachers we are responsible forever student that was attended for at the begining of class. As such we need to esnure that if they are not in class that they are accounted for somewhere in the building. In this case, it was cruitical that the teacher ensured billy had gone to the office in orer to pass the responsibility of care to admin. this could have been done with a simple call to the office.

I also see 2 main ethical issues presented in this case study.
The first ethical issue I noticed was that the teacher berated a student. It is extremely unethical to verbally abuse anyone, and perhaps even more so true when it comes to children and students. It is never okay to take out frustration ona child even if the child is the cause of the frustration. As teachers, we need to remember that we are role models to our students and we need to act accordingly. Regardless of what the student says or does, we need to remember our position and show students the appropirtae manner of responding to these issues. Students need to feel comfortable and need to understand that you are there to support and guide them

The next ethical issue presented was the assumption made that Billy was guilty of vandalism. In this case, the teacher made an assumption that Billy was guilty simply because the student had been seen infron tof that wall at an earlier time. To accuse A child of vandalism without any concrete proof is unethical and unfair. Even if we do make the assumption that biilly was guilty, the manner in which it was handled was wrong. By addressing the issue during class the teacher creating a more disturbing situation. If a teacher is attempting to discipline a student or child, it is important that there is a type of progressive discipline plan in place. Students should not be addressed in front of their peers but rather taken out f the class setting or perhaps spoken to after school to address the issue.

How will this affect my classroom practice and how will it affect me as a teacher in a school.

I think the important thing to take away from this is that in my own practice I need to remember that regardless of the situation, I am a professional and a role model and that my actions ( and inactions) have consequences. Regardless of how defeated or upset or frustrated we may become with a student, a school or a class, and we all have those days, it is important to remember our position and to act professionally at all times. We want to not only demonstrate appropriate behaviour to our students but also protect ourselves as teachers.

What aspect of the concept is most intriguing to you as an Ontario teacher?

I think what I found most intriguing was the methods in which various teachers handle discpline or challenging students. I can recall from my experience in Highschool that students being called out, or belittled in the middle of class was very common. Students misbehaved students were often yelled at infront of all their peers. I do not recall seeing any use of progressive discippline. Students were either sent out to sit in the hall or immediately sent to the office. As we learned, this is not appropriate and offen iaffective. So it its great to see onario teacher implement new strategies like progressive discipline.


Which legal information learned will be most beneficial to you as a teacher?

When a student leaves the class, we need to ensure the student is accounted for. this means creating a plan which dictates where the students will go, a note is provided, and several people are aware of where the student should be usually this means contatic admin but perhaps even another trsuted educator may help. in this way even if anything does go wrong, we can be sure that all precautions were taken and enforced.