Ethical leadership requires an ethical leader and a coherent ethical framework to guide decisions and actions. Ethics are based on a set of social norms while morality is based on a set of beliefs. In the case of officer Ben Fields, situational ethics are questioned value, as well as, based ethics, professional ethics, and rule based ethics. Ethical behavior reflects a value system that matures from a coherent view of the world based on equity, justice, the need and right for others, and a sense of obligation to others needs and standards to society.
A case in South Carolina questions ethics (Adcox, 2015). South Carolina officer Ben Fields worked as a resource officer at Spring Valley High School in 2015 when a female student was being disruptive
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in class. The female student was asked to leave the classroom by the teacher and administration but refused. Officer Fields was then brought in to remove the unruly student. Fields told the student she was under arrest when he asked her to remove herself from the classroom and refused. The officer is on video flipping the student out of her desk and throwing her across the room.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott stated that Fields did not use proper procedure but police officers are human and make mistakes; however, Fields should be held responsible for his actions. The teacher and principal who witnessed the incident support Fields actions.
Someone claimed that Fields targets black students and accuse them of being gang related. The internet was outraged with a video of a white officer assaulting a black female teenager. There is also a debate if Fields should have been in the classroom in the first place. This is where ethics becomes a question.
Did Fields hold bias feelings towards students from African American culture? Did Fields have proper authority to even enter the classroom? When I further researched the topic of Ben Fields, I remembered an anonymous quote that was introduced to me a few years ago while studying religious studies, something like one man’s terrorist is another man’s hero. Field had just as much support as he had controversy. A Spring Valley High School student, Reginald Seabrook stated Fields did no wrong (Yan, Conlon, & Newsome, 2015). In fact, Fields won an award while working at an elementary school. There were previous lawsuits against Fields that were dismisses. Could a repeated pattern not be recognized by the courts or could Fields really be a good
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officer? The U.S. Justice Department announced an agreement to upgrade training and monitoring for resource officers (Monk, 2016) after so many incidents. Charges were dismissed on a student’s mother because the courts found no probable cause. They may have seen a repeated pattern to update training. After researching ethical behavior, I agree with the decision. Social responsibility is the focus of an article I read (Weaver, Trevino, & Cochran, 1995) that suggests that external pressures for social performance encourage just decoupled process while top management commitments encourage both decoupled and integrated processes. If I was Fields supervisor, I would feel estranged by the accusations made against him while he was on my schedule.
I would have felt responsible for his behavior because proper training was not incorporated. I would have enlisted all of my officers in training to handle situational stressors. In my opinion, the female student caused a situational stressor by having used her cell phone in class and then refusing to leave class. Her actions, in my opinion, could have caused stress on not only the faculty involved, but also the students who was there to learn. When thinking about social responsibility, two wrongs do not make a right. Most people in Fields position would rather lead by example. In this case, Fields example was just as wrong as the student’s actions. I cannot justify overly aggressive behavior from a man against a female juvenile; however, I would have to refer to the guideline and protocol to follow the chain of
command. In conclusion, even though some people find flaw in officer Fields behavior, the courts dismissed his charges. Rather it be an ethical issue or not, the courts had to recognize the probable cause in which was the female student being unruly. Even though Fields aggressive behavior was questionable as a pattern, the courts did not recognize the issue in the same manner as the United States Justice Department. I believe there will always be a need to update training in any organization, especially in those organizations that are evolving everday.
This case involves a sophomore at a high school named Christine Franklin, who alleged that she was sexually harassed and abused by a teacher and sports coach by the name of Andrew Hill. These allegations were occurring from 1986-1988, a total of two years. These allegations included Hill having explicit conversations with Franklin, forcing her to kiss him, and forceful intercourse on school grounds. Franklin claimed that she let teachers and administrators know about the harassment and that other students were going through the same harassment. The result of telling the teachers and administrators was that nothing was done about the situation and even encouraged Franklin not
United Stated trial, I, serving as a Supreme Court Justice, have decided that Fields has been correctly convicted of his crime. A precedent that’s able to further support my decision goes back to the case of the New York Times v. Sullivan, which demonstrates the right to make false statements. This precedent has helped keep past cases consistent, liable, and precise. Within this certain case, the First Amendment comes in hand with protecting the publication of all statements, even false ones. Furthermore, Mills’ statement of Ehle admitting that he would falsely testify against Fields for favorable treatment was legal. The US Supreme Court had found evidence of the men’s association with the Aryan Brotherhood gang, which became an abundant source of evidence for Mills' possible bias against the respondent’s case. Therefore, Mills' membership in the gang is not exactly proof that he is lying, but considerable evidence that he is more plausible to lie. Basically, this precedent has shown that Fields has been rightfully prosecuted and
We have to keep the students first" Is raising the bar for these students also include morality and judgment? Does having a football coach and Dean leaving his pregnant wife at home to have an affair sound like something the kids should be learning as a vice with no consequences? Since Superintendent DeTomasso and Principle Harrington ruled Cracco did nothing wrong, do the students, who now know every sordid detail of the affair, believe that this behavior is OK? Does anyone in the Bellmore-Merrick area believe that if Cracco was a women the outcome of DeTommaso's "Did nothing wrong" ruling would have been the same?
In Woodlock v. Orange, the school counselor, known as N.W., was advocating for systemic change on behalf of her special education students. This was well within the code of ethics. N.W. was repeatedly expressing her concerns to the administrative intern and principal. Her primary concern was a lack of certified gym and art instructors, which violated state special education mandates and the children’s IEPs. She raised other safety concerns to the administration with little to no response. She began to document all of her interactions with the administration, leading to a written reprimand issued to her by the principal. This reprimand stated that N.W. was “taking it upon yourself t...
In my opinion, I do not believe there is anything that could justify Deputy Sheriff Fields, the SRO at Spring Valley High School, with how he treated the teenage girl involved. School Resource Officer 's (SRO) work with community-based organizations that are suppose to prevent school violence and are trained in three specific roles: law related teacher, law enforcement officer, and law related counselor (School Safety Net, 2004). Additionally, Deputy Sheriff Fields did not portray any of these qualities to at least try to detain the situation, other than by being a law enforcement officer. The top priority should have been to detain the situation before an escalation occurred or the possibility of another student being endangered or affected by her actions. However,
To apply this system of moral values effectively, one must understand the structural levels at which ethical dilemmas occur, who is involved in the dilemmas, and how a particular decision will affect them. In addition, one must consider how to formulate possible courses of action. Failing in any of these three areas may lead to an ineffective decision, resulting in more pain than cure.” Ken Blanchard states, “Many leaders don’t operate ethically because they don’t understand leadership; these executives may have MBA’s from Ivey League schools or have attended leadership training; they may routinely read the best-selling management books, however, they don’t understand what it means to be a leader.” They don’t model a way of ethical behaviors.
The outcomes of these relationships are varied; some end happy, some end with hurt and shame, not only for the student, but the professor and other stakeholders. Until recently, these relationships were swept under the rug, with administrators looking the other way or the professor resigning in shame only to move on to another university to behave in the same manner. Since 1972, State universities that employ more than 15 employees are no longer exempt now subject to Title VII Civil Rights act of 1964 when hiring and are subject to cases of sexual harassment as well. In this case, a Title IX complaint would ensue. Title IX has been very controversial within academia. Under this act, complaints must be “investigate[d] … promptly through a campus-based process” (Pope, 2014), which are meticulous official processes. The process for investigating the complaints has been scrutinized by “civil liberties groups and the American Association of University Professors” (Pope, 2014) who many professors are members. Stronger ethic training for cases described above may curtail some of these complaints. The faculty and senate committee may not see this as a subject that needs to be covered in the ethics training. Many members of this community feel as if their colleagues would not behave in this manner, therefore, it does not need to be addressed. However, it is obvious that these relationships continue to occur and the two people who are involved are not the only ones who are affected. The university’s, department’s, program’s, student’s and professor’s reputations suffer, valuable time and resources are spent and the outcome typically is a tragic one. Policies prohibiting these relationships need to be enforced. The challenge will be to break the “blue” academic
Teacher-Student Relationship. Educators should demonstrate ethical conduct inclusive of nothing less than a professional relationship with all students at all times inside and outside the classroom, which includes nurturing the hold child (emotionally, socially, intellectually and physically). Unethical conduct includes child abuse (physical/verbal), child endangerment, sexual acts, discrimination of any kind, and any type of relationship other than professional and supplying students with alcohol or
Looking at the first word in ethical leadership we see, as stated in the Webster-Merriam dictionary, ethical is defined as “following accepted rules of behavior: morally right and good”. When we think of someone who is ethical we, first, think of someone who ‘follows the rules’. By following the rules I mean someone who in the eyes of the majority is morally sound. Having strong morals is what I believe the key is to an ethical person. On the other side of the definition of ethical is defining it as having inside oneself the desire to do what’s right over what is wrong. When we speak about someone who is ethical this desire is one that is not dependent on external forces i.e. no one can sway an ethical person’s mindset.
Fairness when seeing an officer on the street. Not be quick to judge. Just because they see an officer on the street in uniform does not mean that he is bad and out to hurt them. They need to use clarity. Yes, Wilson shot and killed Brown but they need to know all the facts before making a decision on the situation.
Ethical leadership simply means the act of leading by knowing and doing what is right (Wise Geek, 2014). A leader that exhibit ethical leadership understands his or her core values, principles, and beliefs and live true to those values. An ethical leader serves as a mirror through which people view and perceive the organization they represent. Moral and ethical leaders serve as role models for others, who sets realistic, yet a high moral and ethical standards for others to follow and abide. This handbook will help managers to understand the importance and the principle of the moral and ethical leadership, the path to a better ethical decision making, and ways to create a moral and ethical organizational culture.
An ethical leader has a significant effect on the manner staff performs in a team and what they
The supervisor made a professional judgment that I had to adhere to and report the incident to the administrative staff as they are responsible for reviewing the alleged violations of ethical standards by the teacher. Reporting the incident was not the problem, but having to report on a colleague or someone you work with in the building is not an easy thing to do. I reported the incident to the task liaison and the Assistant Principal in charge of special Education. I felt that it was best to report o him since the teacher involved is a special education teacher. I was most uncomfortable in reporting the teacher. I know that her actions were inappropriate, but having to report someone you work with is not an easy thing to do. Reporting the teacher could have resulted in an awkward working
The school most certainly had the duty of standard care. Torte explains that there needs to be appropriate and reasonable standards of a professional practice (school) (Dragan, n.d.). The school did not act under professional standards in this case. From my understanding in practicing for my criminal justice degree reasonable standard would have been what the social norm would be at that time. Under the circumstances where children were vulnerable to the opposite sex, they opened it up for possible sexual assault on other students.
Ethical leadership is having an understanding of who you are, what your core values are, having the courage to live them all, in your personal life as well as your work life. Ethical leadership involves leading in a manner that respects the rights and dignity of others. Ethical decision making and leadership are the basis of ethical organizations. Leadership is a relationship between leaders and followers. The foundation of this relationship is trust. The leaders themselves must be ethical in their decisions and actions in order to influence others to behave accordingly. Ethical leadership is to know one’s core values and having the courage to live them through one’s life. Ethics and leaders go hand in hand; ethics is the heart of leadership.