A New Superintendent Of An Urban School District Essay

This paper will discuss the various ethical dilemmas facing school resource officers (SRO). This will include problems with 4th amendment protections of students, interviews and interrogations of juveniles, as well as, privacy issues expected by students and faculty. Other issues to be will also address two sociological theories, the Self Efficacy and the Modeling theory. I will also discuss how school discipline is being reclassified in to criminal behavior resulting in many children being classified as criminals due to minor behavior problems. Finally this paper will discuss the SROs role, should it be public servant, or crime fighter.

New York City consists of five boroughs, Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. The borough that I reside in is Brooklyn. Brooklyn has approximately 2.592 million people inhabiting this district and approximately 23.4 percent of individuals who reside in Brooklyn, NY come from a low-income household or in other words come from poverty. With catholic and private schools being expensive, people have to rely on the education system to provide their children with a good education. In this paper I will be discussing the public school education system ranging solely up to high school in Brooklyn New York and giving a general idea of the New York education system as well.

In the case study Appropriate Punishment Versus Political Expediency, nine African American male teenagers were severely punished for their involvement in a violent altercation at a high school football game. Some people in the local community; especially the African American population became outraged by the school board’s ruling. Other community members, including many white residents, and school board officials thought the punishment was just. This situation exposes many controversial issues occurring within the educational system. Topics such as race relations and appropriateness in student discipline were prominent. With strong political and social context associated with these subject matters, there are complexities in addressing these types of situations. In any event, educational leaders and district representatives should aim to handle matters by considering the child’s best interest. They should also use the principle of subsidiarity to deal with challenges that may arise. School executives ought to implement effective solutions

Although the superintendent has the authority to hire and fire teachers, it would be within his best interest to do so based on appropriate legal footing rather than personal bias. The superintendent’s recommendations for Barnhart’s change of employment appears to be grounded in bias. From the beginning he was a dubious supporter of Barnhart as athletic director. He has no proof that she contacted the reporter so is basing his decision on the weak legal footing of assumption. Understandably, he is doing so to balance teacher rights and promoting harmony within the work place which ultimately supports student learning. Several court cases provide guide lines for achieving this balance. The cases of Pickering v. Board of Education (1968) and Connick v. Myers (1983) developed a two pronged test to check the balance. First, does the speech address matters of public concern? Assuming Barnhart did contact the reporter, yes, the information is a matter of public concern since it involves Title IX, a federal civil law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in education activities. It is a federal law that high schools treat boys’ and girls’ sports equally. Also, can Burnhart demonstrate her speech interest outweigh the harmony of the district leadership? Again, yes, the speech is not affecting her immediate supervisor, principal Tara Hills as supported by Fales v. Garst

This case brings up to the administrators who are known as a legal representation that strive to create positive changes in educational policy and processes, that they have rights and power protected by law, but also have a duty to comply with the laws established by the district.

In a recent article from US News, they ask a question that is stirring much debate nationwide, whether school resource officers (SRO’s) are doing more harm than good. The rate of children becoming involved in the Juvenile Justice system through SRO’s is alarming. “In theory, so called school resource officers are supposed to foster exactly what many civil right groups are campaigning for: better relations between law enforcement and citizens, particularly minorities and lower-income families” (Sneed, 2015). The word resource originated from Old French meaning to rise again and in Latin a resurrection. Today’s meaning of resource can be defined as a source of support or something that enhances the quality of human life (Merriam-Webster, 2015). When considering what the title of SRO stands for, children should be given more options and assistance rather than fear based compliance tactics traditionally used on adult criminals. I feel we are almost telling kids well we can’t put you all in jail, so we will bring the jail to your school. How could a cop in a school be non-threatening? Children see a bullet proof vest, Taser, gun, handcuffs, pepper spray and I really doubt they are thinking this person is there to help them.

In recent years, the Arizona education department has been under fire after the Arizona legislature passed a law banning Mexican-American studies in schools (Planas, 2015, p. 1). Not only have the schools in Arizona suffered from this discriminatory law, but also the advancement of Mexican-American students. This essay will briefly go over the Tucson Unified School District, the district in the midst of the controversy, and will mainly focus on Pueblo Magnet High School, one of the schools in the Tucson Unified School District that was greatly affected by the ethnic studies law.

Did she contact the newspaper during school hours? This would be important for me to know, as some districts have policies regarding teachers and the media. I would also like to see the districts policies. The last part of information needed is more information regarding the teacher. Was the teacher transferred for other reasons, did she have other issues with her supervisors? In case, the school was just trying to push her out, and this was an opportunity for them to do that.

Also, people started saying that sports teams already pre-ordered new jerseys. With this drama adding to everything else around the community started making everyone go crazy. One of my close friend’s Emily put together a protest before school started that brought together more than 300 kids. We stood outside even though it was a chilly 30 degree morning. When the principals told everyone to go back inside, a group of 100 students started sprinting away from the school and towards the main street, Central Ave. While Emily spent a couple weeks putting together the morning protest, she did not put together what turned into craziness. Kids spent what was suppose to be a normal school day, running the streets of Lancaster. They stopped at the middle school to meet up with other kids who felt so strongly about the situation. Throughout the school day, students were distracted because our school was all other social media and the news about the event that just overturned. Teachers became worried about the students but the students thought it was a hilarious prank to get out of school. Police officers were even distracted from other important events around the town to make sure the safety of students were upheld. During that day, the group of students were getting smaller since people seen it as a good opportunity to leave and just go home. Considering during my school day I have to leave to go to Harkness for Cosmetology, I even had teachers around the school stop my friend and I and question what we were doing since they didn't want anymore people leaving the building, but we had an obvious exception. In a week's time students who were absent from that day were disciplined

It is important to begin a study of resource management and allocation with a discussion of ethics because work ethics guides the school leaders with the help of moral compass how to utilize the public resources and taxpayers’ money. In order to execute the school budget efficiently and avoid conflict of interest, school leaders must know how to develop the code of ethics regarding resource management and

Following the Hazelwood decision of 1988, school officials such as principles were given the right to censor student publications and practice prior review; reading the articles before they are published. Many school officials fortunately refrain from using their ability to do so. Sadly, nearly one third of journalism students and teachers have reported administrative censorship over their content

The events that took place at Washington High Schools have caused a division between the students, teachers and administration. While some support the decision the principal has made to suspend the students for their untasteful talent show performance, others question its effectiveness. Shortly after the suspension, the students began segregating themselves and exchanging racial comments. The situation has escalated out of control and it has become a political one; leaders of the African American community want to discuss the talent show protest and are demanding a meeting with the principal.

This is when administrator’s actions need to be examined in an effort to ensure that their decisions are in the best interest of the students. For instance, Arizona’s School District had come under examination from a federal court case and by the U.S. Office of Civil Rights over their methods of identifying students in need of ELL services. Arizona’s pull-out program provides a four-hour pull-out session for ELL students. Many argued that “the pull-out sessions deprived students of educational content they needed” (Ballentine & Hammack, 2012, p. 114). Shedding light on this information allowed Arizona’s School District to re-assess their practices to ensure that it was best practice. Also, it permits the administrators to make any necessary modifications.

a) What action, if any, should have been taken by the school administration when the local teachers’ association publicly criticized the administration and the school board?

“Ethics are defined as a set of principles of right conducts; the rules or standards governing the conduct of a person or the members of a profession” ( Dictionary of the Human Language, 2000). Teachers are often put in situations that require more than just knowing the basic school rules. It is within these situations, that the ethical dilemmas occur. There is not always a right way to deal with many daily problems that face educators, but there are ways to handle situations that are better then others.