Case Involving the Assault on a Student by a Teacher

The internship is a temporary and carefully monitored work experience designed for interns to acquire skills and qualifications in their field of study. The internship is also necessary for training learners for white collar jobs and professional careers It involves the exchange of service for experience between the student and the institution. Being a student in Greensboro College-kinesiology department, I was expected to adhere to the code of ethics provided by the National Education Association, during my internship period as a trainer of body movements or physical activities Essentially important to note, the same ethics were to be adhered by my associate trainers, including those practicing as professionals.

Warnick (2011) defines Ethics as the moral values and issues that govern human behavior within a society. They define what is right or wrong in a particular circumstance. Ethical behaviors need to be highly observed within any given institution; the student is attached in for the internship.

The National Education Association (NEA) in the US provides a code of ethics and ethical principles to govern ethical behavior in learning institutions (Hyland T, 2000).

Education codes require teachers to be of good conduct and permits dismissal in case of unethical behavior The ethics help the stttdent- teacher develop high professional standards and ethical behavior, My ethical position paper is more based on the case whereby the teacher, head football coach in the school I was attached to resigned from work as a result of cancer illness. Another teacher was assigned the responsibility of being the football coach after the resignation of the former.

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One of the football players was not pleased by this situation since he preferred their former coach to the current one. However, instead of the teacher giving relevant advice to the player he claimed to get over it and assaulted the student.

As a result, the student proceeded to the office and reported their football coach, Consequently, the teacher was fired on the spot, The situation landed me at a position of being a coach and teacher at the same time. Analyzing the above case, it was ethical for the school to fire the teacher after the incident of insulting a student, for the following reasons: First, NEA code of ethics advocates an educator not to intentionally expose a student to unnecessary embarrassment and disparagement. Such an embarrassment results to student‘s low self-esteem, Secondly, the educator should not intentionally violate or deny a student’s legal right (Jennings, 2004), The teacher denied the student his right to express his feelings freelyi By insulting and demanding the student to get over the situation caused more pain and suffering, It could be ethical for the teacher to help the student cope with the situation Assaulting him discouraged and lowered his morale to participate in the football game as well, Moreover, an educator shall make reasonable efforts to protect the student from conditions harmful to learning and/ or to the student’s mental and/ or physical health and safety.

The student was affected psychologically and suffered from depression. This would affect his learning negatively leading to poor performance. The teacher, therefore, caused harm to the student’s learning rather than protecting harmful conditions as required, The situation presented me with an opportunity to understand the following: an educator should also be concerned with student’s personal issues, The educator should also strive to exercise the best professional judgment and integrity, to accommodate the diversity of students‘ personal traits and attitudes, The coach fired violated this principle since he did not provide the best solution to the student’s attitude and concern. Essentially important, the situation enlightened me on the importance of maintaining respect and confidence among the students. Still important, I realized the need for an educator to value the worth and dignity of every student. In addition, educators should pursuit the truth and avoid acting for their personal benefit.

Essentials to the achievement of these standards are the freedom to learn, teach and the guarantee of equal opportunity to all. It was the expectation of the educator to adhere to the above ethics. Generally, the teacher was not devoted to the excellence of the student and the entire college as well. Based on the above discussion, it is evidenced that it was ethical to take action of firing the teacher after being found guilty of assaulting the student As argued by Jennings (2004), every educator in the United States of America is expected to act ethically at all times by the National Education Association The codes of ethics of the association permit dismissal of an educator for unethical behavior such as assault, sexual harassment, and disparagementi The teacher assault to student caused embarrassment and lowering of self»esteem. This also affected his potential negatively, by lowering his morale to play the footballr The school, therefore, had right to dismiss the teacher as is in accordance with the principles of ethics provided by NEA.