Apparently this means that before this code the teachers could do anything they wanted? !
I think codes of conduct are a joke. Do teachers need a code of conduct to know it is wrong to send a sexual email to a student?!
Yes, yes they do. Much like warning labels warning against throwing a hair dryer in water. If there’s a code of conduct or a warning label, some idiot has done it, and apparently others needs these warnings as well. I’m not saying that they are effective though.
No, they really don’t need such a code. Establishing such a code will not prevent those who are predisposed to such actions from doing them. Those who would be deterred by the code would be equally deterred by a simple discussion of the underlying ethics.
It does, however, make it potentially easier to handle borderline cases. With a code in place, the school can simply point to the code and then dismiss the teacher, rather than get into a discussion of what the teacher should have known would be acceptable conduct in such a borderline case.
The forgoing applies solely to discussion of teacher/student relationships where the student is a minor. For students who are not minors, then a code is necessary simply because there is no inherent moral barrier to interaction in that case, though in general most teachers would prefer not to use the existence of a teacher/student relationship to initiate a personal relationship (and I think it fair to say most of society would frown on such conduct). I do, however, recall a law school professor at my law school who married one of his students in the class one year behind mine. We all kind of rolled our eyes at the situation.
A somewhat relevant Straight Dope column.
No matter how stupid or unethical or both something is, somewhere, there’s someone who’s going to do it.
Personally I’m astonished by the warning labels on things.
Actually, there is scope for making them genuinely amusing.
No, as DSYoungEsq has pointed out, prior to the implementation of the codes, a teacher could come before a school board with his/her lawyer and claim that whiles/he might have displayed a brief lack of judgment, there had been no official proscription of the behavior and s/he should be admonished and allowed back to the classroom. The board could then have to decide whether they would win or lose a lawsuit based on subjective interpretations of specific acts. Intercourse would pretty surely get a win for the board–especially as the teacher would probably be in jail; suggestive text messages might have gotten a pass from a jury if they could be portrayed as “inappropriate” but harmless. Now there is a bright line distinction regarding behavior that prevents any discussion of “judgment.” “Did you break the published rule? You’re outta here.”
Mary Letourneau said on 20/20 that she didn’t know it was a felony to have sex with a 12-year old.
Given that Ms. Letourneau demonstrated both the intelligence and the ethics of a mad shrew in heat, I could go with either the explanation that she was truly that ignoranct or that she was lying. (I do not rule out the option that both possibilities are simultaneously true.)
From the link:
That pretty much leaves out most of the good stuff in American lit, I am afraid. And I dare any of you to teach transcendentalism, and to be in the middle of saying “so they reached down in side themselves to find hte spot where they are god” and have your very brightest girl pipe up “You mean your g-spot?” and NOT break into hysterical laughter.
Actually, boundaries are a problem and there are a great many situations that are more gray than having sex with 12-year olds. I’ve bailed kids out of jail, taken kids who’d never been on a college campus to see one, held I don’t even want to think about how many kids as they cried about all sorts of things. I think those things make me a better person. I think I’m doing a service to society–those two kids above are both in college now and doing well, and I don’t know that either of them would have been if it weren’t for me. But I also crossed all kinds of boundaries to get them there. It helps that I am a woman, and I do take certain steps – certainly, I am never alone in my house with a kid–but when I have a kid call on a Saturday morning because they need a ride to an AP tutoring session and there is no one else to give them one, I go pick them up.