Group 1 Assignment 1
Albritton, Allemani, Arp, Boling, Carter, Champion
You are an
administrator in a high school located in a small, rural community. I t comes
to your attention that Mr. Jones, a ninth grade math teacher, took a trip to
Las Vegas over the Labor Day weekend. Unfortunately for Mr. Jones, he wound up
spending the weekend in jail for driving under the influence. It is now March,
and Mr. Jones approaches you about taking personal leave to go back to Las
Vegas to plead guilty and pay for his fine. The Clerk of the Court has told Mr.
Jones that the judge will not impose any further jail time if he pleads guilty.
Describe your response to Mr. Jones concerning the following:
Mr. Jones should be able to use personal leave to return to Las Vegas for court if he has accrued the leave requested and has permission from his supervisor. The Code of Georgia – 45-20-16 – section d states that personal leave may be used by the employee for personal reasons the same as annual leave upon the approval by the employee’s appointing authority. The code further states that the employee shall normally be required to provide the appointing authority with a 24 hour advance notice for use of the personal leave. The code does not provide limitations on how personal leave can be used.
The Code of Ethics for Georgia Educators allows the use of personal leave to handle this matter, particularly since Mr. Jones did not falsify or misrepresent the reason for his absence. He did not violate Standard 4. Standard 3 was not violated since alcohol was not consumed during the course of professional practice. A violation of moral turpitude has not occurred according to the Code.
There are many questions left to be investigated. Were there any children involved? If so, it takes the situation into a much higher level of concern. A written warning of further actions on the part of Mr. Jones could result a Professional Standards complaint. Another question that would need to be answered is how was he impaired. Driving under the influence can mean several different things. Was he taking prescription medication, had he been drinking or was he using recreational drugs? This information will have an impact on any actions.
We do not feel that the Code of Ethics is appropriate in this situation for several reasons. Some of the mitigating factors involved here are the location in which the incident took place, a first time offense which could probably be a misdemeanor and the fact that there isn’t clarification as to why the “clerk of the court” is acting as an officiate/attorney and giving council on behalf of the judge. The code further does not include driving under the influence as a part of moral turpitude. It seems to us that this should be included in the code since students view educators as role models.
Reporting this first time offender is a tricky situation. The offense occurred on personal time and the teacher freely gave the information to the appropriate authority. We feel that the best course of action is to counsel the educator about the severity of the offense and warned that more violations could certainly result in a report to the Professional Standards Commission.
We are left wondering though; could the decision by the administration to not report the incident be in itself an infraction of the Code of Ethics? As an administrator, we should be granted discretionary privileges to determine what needs to be reported. The administrator should have the ability to warn an educator through writing about the possibility of being reported if the behavior continues.
References:
Code of Ethics for Government Service, 1968, O.C.G.A. § 45-10-1. Retrieved September 15, 2007, from
http://text.usg.edu:8080/tt/sacs.kennesaw.edu/ga/www.legis.state.ga.us/cgi-bin/gl_codes_detail1f38.html?code=45-10-22.
Georgia Professional Standards Commission. (2004). Code of Ethics for Educators. Retrieved September 15, 2007, from www.gapsc.com.