Legal/Ethical Issues in Schools

Angenetta Turner

BUS 670- Legal Environment

Legal/Ethical Issues in Schools

Week 6 Assignment

Instructor: Rachael Jencks

Monday, April 23, 2012

Legal/Ethical Issues in Schools

Legal and ethical issues are something that is dealt with daily in all workplaces. The business of education is a serious one, demanding a set of well-defined ethics and values, well-bound in visible legal outlines to regulate its exchange and distribution. In order to understand what or how to deal with these issues, we must first understand the issues related to the Public Schools. In today’s Public Schools ethics is the core to having success in and out of the classroom, without good ethical values schools can end up dealing with legal issues brought on by unethical behaviors. This paper will give us a better understanding of the ethical issues in education and the legal problem that could possibly come with the unethical behavior.

I have decided to talk about these issues from the public school perspective because I have worked in the system for the last 21 years. I see and know the unethical and legal issues that are dealt with daily. The Department of Education has a Code of Ethics in which all employees should live by while in the workplace. A few of the ethical issues are Special Education, school uniforms, discipline polices, teacher choice, diversity and possible grading issues. All of the listed issues carry important legal issues if not dealt with carefully and ethically leaving one to decide whether or not it relates to intentional or unintentional tort. Negligence is an unintentional tort because the tortfeasor does not intend to cause harm, but, through careless behavior, does cause harm. Intentional tort is negligence that was done with the intent to cause harm. We will first try to give a clear and thoughtful definition for the meaning of ethics and legal as relates to the workplace....