The board of education violated Pettit’s rights to privacy, and they were not justified to take her teaching license. Though Pettit engaged in sexual behavior, the action took place outside the class and school compound. This argument indicates that the behaviors in which individuals engage in while in private areas have little impacts on the workplace. The unprofessional and immoral conduct for teachers requires that punishment should prescribe found to engage in sexual immorality in the classroom or the presence of students ( Council, 2007) . Though Pettit engaged in immoral actions, the behavior took place outside the school compound and in the absence of students. It was only revealed through the undercover officers and the teachers who engaged in discussions about her show in the local television.
The action by the board of education to fire Pettit and take her license was not justified because Pettit’s behavior was not unprofessional. The unprofessional and immoral conducts for teachers are diverse, and it requires that actions should be taken upon an unclassified immoral behavior unless there was evidence that the teacher is unfit to teach. In addition to Pettit’s action being private, she had not shown any form of misconduct in classes, and the students performed well in their class work. She had never been caught engaging in sexual immorality with any student or discussing any sexual practices with the student’s parents. Since she had pleaded guilty of the action and agreed not to engage in such activities, the best solution was to give a warning but not taking her teaching license. The virtue that Pettit engaged in oral sex in privacy does not indicate that she has a probability of taking the initiative of discussing sexual immorality with students. She has been in the profession for a long period, and she has been keeping personal life away from professional activities.
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Pettit’s behavior had nothing to do with the unprofessional code of the code of conduct for teachers. The action took place outside the classroom and school compound, but it was significantly immoral. Being teacher means that one becomes a role model for both the students and public members ( Council, 2007) . As a result, one needs to be morally upright, and all her actions need to be governed by the moral values. Though the action was private, it would have significant direct behaviors on the behaviors of children in situations where it was revealed to the public. Her age and her age indicate that she just like a role model and a person every young member of society would like to emulate. If they came across her moral behavior, it would mean that whatever she did was right and students would be willing to practice such behaviors. The moral behavior for teachers requires that no teacher should engage in any form of communication discussing sexual values either with the students or parents. The party was public, and the attendants constituted of parents.
Despite her actions, the behavior had nothing to do with her profession meaning that Pettit was still fit to teach. For several years, she has been in the profession, she had been recording good performance in class, and she had not committed any form of professional misconduct. She was at a party where everyone knew the purpose of the party and this had no connection with her professions — the argument that she was unfit to teach acts as a way of victimizing her life because being a teacher by profession does not indicate that teachers should not attend public events. Mrs. Pettit was not engaging in any type of behavior in the view of the public. She was at a party where everyone knew the purpose of the event. Pettit’s action at home does not send a reflection of the behavior she shows when in class or interacting with students. Though she was not in control, Pettit had exceptional skills and new the mechanisms she ought to apply to keep her life private and distinct from her professional behavior.
If teachers are found to have good performance in classes, they should not be judged for moral standards outside the class. The teaching profession has nothing to do one’s private life, and the education board tries to judge and fine teachers for immoral behaviors committed outside classrooms, they would be violating their rights to privacy. In the moral conduct for teachers, the ethical action holds teachers responsible for immoral behaviors that are performed in the presence of students while in class or a school setting. However, it does not have anything to do with one’s personal life unless it is performed in the presence of students. For example, Mrs. Pettit’s engagement in wife swapping was performed in a private club where the intention of the activities was prescribed. Taking action against her means that there is a violation of her rights. It was not done in the presence of students. Judging her means that the school lost one of the best teachers whose performance is well recognized in her career.
Though Pettit engaged in immoral actions, it did not affect her career, and she had not performed an unprofessional behavior. Throughout the thirteen years in the teaching profession, Pettit has been interacting with disabled students, and her performance in class has been positive without an association with bad behaviors. The principal’s evaluation has always been positive and recommends her good performance in class. Though Pettit experienced the revoking of her teaching license, this action was unfit because it ended up resulting in adverse effects in the school’s performance. Based on the case for Pettit, the board of education should set distinctive features that determine the circumstances when an individual can be punished for immoral action s performed outside the classroom. Sanctions should be exercised in situations where the behavior outside classroom rhymes with immoral and unprofessional conducts in the class.
There exist several behaviors that would be recognized to be unprofessional or immoral in the case of teachers. Though the behaviors are diverse, it is evident most of such behaviors govern the interaction between the teachers and children. For instance, it is unprofessional for teachers to use inappropriate language when describing another teacher, student, and parents or any other stakeholder in the education system. Additionally, it is also unprofessional to interact with students in school when in clothes that show too much of his or her skin ( Unal et al., 2018) . The professional code of conduct for teachers discourages this kind of behavior and requires that all teachers should be dressed in formal clothes that cover most of their body parts. In the case of exams, it is immoral for teachers to engage in any form of cheating in exams especially in situations where the some of the students find it challenging to integrate what they have been told in class. If a teacher tries to assist such students during the exam, the teacher will be acting participating in immoral behavior.
It is also immoral for a teacher to engage in sexual relations with students or discuss sexual matters with a student ( Unal et al., 2018) . In such occasions, the teacher will have committed an immoral offense and will be subject to punishment for such behaviors. All sexual matters for teachers need to be kept private, and they should not be revealed to the students. It is also immoral for a teacher to behave sexually through communication irrespective of whether the communication is intended to the students or the student’s parents. This kind of behavior is illegalized and challenged in the education system, and it requires that such behaviors need to be kept private and have little impact on the lives of the children. Though the immoral and professional conduct for teachers appears to be diverse, successful teachers have mechanisms for keeping such actions private to avoid the sanctions associated with breaking any of the moral and professional conduct.
References
Council, T. (2007). Codes of professional conduct for teachers. Maynooth: Teaching Council .
Unal, Z., Unal, A., & Bodur, Y. (2018, June). An Online Experiment of Using Case Studies and Scenarios to Teach Preservice Teachers About the Code of Ethics. In EdMedia+ Innovate Learning (pp. 1047-1056). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).
