Scenario 1
The Life Skills classroom at Hasting High provides Community Based Instruction to its small
group of students with severe disabilities. The district provides some funds for transportation
and community outings, but it isn’t usually enough to keep the students busy throughout the
school year. To help with the funds, the principal allows the students, with the support of the
teachers, to sell breakfast items to the school three days a week. This fundraiser becomes very
popular with the rest of the student body because the breakfast items are inexpensive,
delivered straight to their 1st period classes, and they get to feel good about helping the Life
Skills classroom in a positive way. Ever since the Life Skills fundraising began, the Student
Council sponsor, Mrs. Sumner, has noticed that support for their daily candy fundraiser has
declined, and she believes it is due to the popularity of the breakfast items being sold. One day
she notices a Life Skills student and one of the teachers, Mr. Moore, out making deliveries and
collecting money. The student is clearly struggling with handling the money, so Mr. Moore helps
her by taking some of the money and putting it into his own pocket. Mrs. Sumner sees only this
small interaction and has no other context for the exchange. Later that day, when speaking to a
group of other teachers she mentions seeing Mr. Moore putting some of the breakfast
fundraiser money into his pocket. Over the next several days, this comment makes its way
through the faculty, and when she is questioned by other faculty members, Mrs. Sumner’s
response is that she did see Mr. Moore pocket the money, but she doesn’t know what he did
with it after that. In the same conversations, she also casually mentions the expensive new car
Mr. Moore recently started driving.
Questions:
- Identify the behaviors (if any) that you believe violate standards in the Educator Code
of Ethics. - Which standards do you think were violated? Explain your reasoning. If you feel that
no standards were violated, explain your reasoning. - Should Mr. Moore and/or Mrs. Sumner have handled this situation differently so as
not to violate the Code of Ethics, or (if you feel that there was no violation) to avoid
their actions being called into question?