Chapter 3
The Ethics of School Administration
3/14/2011
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Sam Endicott is the principal of Dennison Junior High School in Spencertown
Mr. Endicott stopped off for a beer at an adult establishment, in Belleville, on
his way home from a countywide administrators’ meeting
The community of Spencertown would not be supportive of a school principal
patronizing a topless bar.
Mr. Endicott was stunned to see a dancer who resembled one of his teachers,
Susan Loring.
Miss Loring, who taught 9th grade English, was an outstanding teacher and a
consummate professional.
Miss Loring had recently spoke to Mr. Endicott indicating that she had to take
on a second job to support her ill mother.
Mr. Endicott did not object as long as she did not let it interfere with her
teaching
Her classroom instruction only improved.
She was talented as a dancer.
When she spoke to him, he was embarrassed for her and him for being seen
there.
He couldn’t keep his eyes on Susan’s face.
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Educators have an obligation to be morally good
Educators serve as role models
Educators have a responsibility to the community and the
students they serve
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Educators have the right to choose the kind of life they
want to lead
What one chooses to do in their private life is their
business
As long as educators aren’t harming anyone, it should not
be anyone’s business
Is Miss Loring wrong
for performing in a
topless bar?
 Is Miss Loring being
exploited?
 Should the teacher be
held to a higher
standard?
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Miss Loring
Is Mr. Endicott wrong
for patronizing a
topless bar?
 Is Mr.Endicott
participating in the
exploitation?
 Should the
administrator be held
to a higher standard?
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Mr. Endicott
 Public
vs. Private Behavior
 Freedom
of Choice vs. Responsibility to the
Community and it’s Beliefs
 Effects-positive
 Moral
vs. negative
vs. Value Judgments
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Who decides if behaviors are right or wrong?
Where to educators public lives end and private lives
begin?
Are educators held accountable to their moral standards or
someone else’s? Who?
Morality/Ethical Behavior policy-Should this be vague or
well defined?
Should/Are Educators held accountable by their districts
for behavior even if it is a legal activity? Ex. stripping,
gambling, drinking in public?
Are jobs considered public or private actions?
Should educators be evaluated only on performance in the
classroom? Should they be evaluated on their behavior
outside of school?
Pregnant
 As an administrator, how would you respond to
this type of situation?
 The Aryan Brotherhood
 How would you respond to this type of
situation?
 Would it make a difference is Mr. Mueller were
a history teacher rather than a science
teacher?
 Tiger! Tiger! Burning Bright
 What ethical problem is Dr. Smith faced with?
 What do you think he should do and why?
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Teacher won't get second chance to escape porn-star past
BY STEVE GIEGERICH • sgiegerich@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8172 | Posted: Friday, March 11, 2011 12:30 am
Much has been said and written over the past three years about an economy that has cruelly stripped away millions of jobs. But we rarely encounter someone heading for the
unemployment office because a salacious past came back to bite her on the derriere that was rather overexposed 15 years ago. As you may be aware, this is the
circumstance that has tripped up the career of Parkway North High School science instructor and one-time X-rated movie actress Tera Myers.
Parkway officials placed Myers on administrative leave — at her request — last week after a student passed the word among classmates about what he had observed in a
decidedly noneducational video found online. She has informed the district she won't return when classes resume in August. Myers, 38, isn't talking. But she had plenty to say
five years ago, when the same issue led to the loss of her first teaching position. According to a story by my colleague Elizabethe Holland, Myers (then known as Tericka Dye)
responded to her dismissal by the Paducah, Ky., schools by appearing on the syndicated talk show hosted by pop psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw.
In an account posted on McGraw's website, Myers traced her X-rated career to a period when, as a 22-year-old single mother of two, she fell in with the wrong crowd. "I was
broke and wound up meeting some strippers who introduced me to stripping. I was making a lot of irrational decisions, porn only being the worst," Myers told McGraw.
It could be reasonably argued that sharing one's deeply personal problems on a national stage with an Oprah wannabe also falls squarely into the category of inexplicably
poor decisions. But I digress.
Myers told McGraw she initiated the effort to turn her life around by enlisting in the Army. Honorably discharged, she took advantage of the GI Bill to enroll at Murray State
(Ky.), earning the degree that brought the teaching job at Paducah's Reidland High School. Students and parents — believing the expertise Myers brought to the classroom
trumped whatever talents she once publicly exhibited in the bedroom — came to the teacher's defense after Paducah officials terminated her contract. Rejecting the
argument that she deserved the benefit of the doubt, the district proceeded with the termination — a decision that drove Myers into the armchair of Dr. Phil.
Five years later in St. Louis, Myers has stayed mum as the media swirls around her. But others have spoken up on her behalf, including some you might not expect to defend
ex-porn stars. Among scores of online comments on the Post-Dispatch story, a woman who called herself a "Christian Soldier" wrote: "I think she should have her second
chance. She has proven you can screw up royally early in life and turn it around into a positive. I'm wondering what some of the other teachers may have been involved with
at college or before their teaching careers that, if known, might 'distract' students they teach! We've all done stuff we regret. It's how to overcome it that counts.“ Following
the lead of their counterparts in Paducah, Parkway North students added their voices to the chorus supporting Myers. Interviewed by local television news reporters, they
praised Myers' abilities as a teacher. They additionally volunteered that the instructor's predicament has imparted a valuable lesson about the long-term consequences of
one's actions.
In education circles, this is known as a teachable moment, the lesson being to think before you act.