EOCS 7450
Pamela Barnett

Practicum in
Leadership                                          Planned
Standards Activity #5

Issues Relevant to Administrators Acting

With Integrity, Fairness and in an Ethical Manner

Even
though HMS is a small middle school of approximately 300 students in a small
rural town, it is still impacted by the lack of integrity, fairness and ethics
of administrators.  HMS is not
shielded from the acts of inappropriate relationships between faculty and
students, faculty and administration, on the job substance abuse among
employees and misuse of position.
These inappropriate acts send out far reaching negative effects that
cannot be erased or remedied.  It
dilutes respect and undermines morale.
Stakeholders lose faith in the educational organization and withdraw their
support and trust.  The void that is
created is often filled with anger, frustration and despair.

As
an organization we cannot be accountable for every individual choice made by
the members but we can and should be responsible for how we react and deal with
the unethical and unfair acts.
Ignoring inappropriate acts of this magnitude for whatever reasons lacks
integrity and fairness.  Those in
leadership positions must make the tough decisions to confront and correct any
behavior that is unethical or unfair.
The students and their well being must come before politics, nepotism
and personal agendas.  Leaders must
make the right decision for the right reason and model integrity, fairness and proper
ethics.  Too often educational
leaders utilize the ‘Do as I say, Not as I do’ philosophy and
expect those under their authority to perfectly perform with integrity and
fairness—even in a small rural community and school like HMS.