The Florida Code of Ethics and Principles of Professional Conduct

                                             Code of Ethics

 I will openly admit that the heading of this post is not the most engaging and attention Th as to rival some of the headliners of the nations' papers, but honestly it is a critical part of my final assignment and I must show my instructor as well as my future employers that I understand the code of ethics and principles of professional standards and the degree of harm a teacher can do by violating these statutes of the Florida law.  It's worth investigating and it's worth certainly worth reviewing.  The law is in place to protect everyone and the Florida educational system goes to great lengths to ensure each employee has a copy of the Code of Ethics and Principles of Professional Conduct in his or her hands before they are contracted into employment.  The only way I have seen the Code of Ethics presented, and the only way I could think to review the information here is to review individual case studies of Florida Teachers who have committed violations of the Code of Ethics and have been released from employment and disgraced by their actions, but before I begin, the entire Code of Ethics document can be viewed at The Florida Department of Education website.   

     The first example I will share is of a Florida educator who violated the Principles of Professional Conduct's section 3 article F that no educator may "intentionally violate or deny a student's legal rights."  The case study I am bringing forward is a small article published by PETA where a teacher forced an animal dissection project on a student who was knowledgeable of the law and claimed her right to opt out of the project.  This case occurred in 2011 in Fort Naples, Florida and the school did not hesitate to remove the teacher from the school and put a firmly worded letter of warning in her personnel file as well as require her to attend specialized training in order to be more sensitive to her student's needs.  Although the consequences for this case are relatively mild, it also shows that something as small as a student exercising his or her right to opt out of an assignment is considered a legal consideration for a professional.  It can not be overlooked.  Article F of the Principles of Professional Conduct is vaguely worded enough to incorporate a multitude of legal meanings.  The PETA news article can be found on the PETA website. 

     The second example I will share is of a Florida educator who violated the Principles of Professional Conduct's section 3 article A that every educator must "make reasonable effort to protect the student from conditions harmful to learning and/or to the student's mental and/or physical health and/or safety."  Not only that, but she violated section 3 article E which states that no educator may "intentionally expose a student to unnecessary embarrassment or disparagement."  The teacher in this scenario worked in Ocala as an elementary school teacher and was fired from the Marion County school system in 2013 for embarrassing and physically abusing a 10 year old autistic student for approximately an hour inside of her classroom because he refused to obey her command to sit in time-out.  The details that are reviewed in the account are embarrassing and an outrage.  The full news article can be found at Ocala.com  
I included this example to show how multiple offenses will compound a case and lead to severe consequences for the educator.

     The third example I will share is of a Florida educator who is believed to have violated the Principles of Professional Conduct, but it is still in question if any of the principles had been technically violated.  The story is connected with the controversial topic of Facebook profiles and the freedom of speech that a teacher is entitled to.  The teacher had previously been a role model of his school and had received the title 'Teacher of the Year'.  He had been teaching for over 26 years and all the same was removed from his position pending investigation because of a simple Facebook comment he made.  Because of the negative connotations seemingly implied by a comment he made on homosexual marriage including some very pointed words of it being a 'sin' in his opinion, his post was enough to spark an investigation into the matter in regards to allegations of a violation of the Code of Ethics.  I would say as a starting point that section 4 article A which states that every educator must "take reasonable precautions to distinguish between personal views and those of any educational institution or organization with which the individual is affiliated."  I could imagine that someone could see his comment as reflecting poorly on the school that hired him to be an objective, rational, and a socially responsible representative of the school.  It could further affect a student's level of comfort experienced in the school if that student was aware of the comment.  It is a teacher's public responsibility to remain unbiased, especially on controversial issues.  This story took place in 2011 and was so explosive for the time that it actually caught the attention of CNN and became national news.  The full news article can be found on  CNN online. 

     To conclude, although these three examples are representative of violations of separate articles of the Code of Ethics, they are all quality examples of how quick a school system will act to ensure that the Code of Ethics is being upheld and to punish those who don't follow the Code of Ethics in practice, despite being aware of the requirements demanded of them.  Every educator must seriously consider these guidelines.  As my instructor is quick to say, they are common sense, but if you fail to observe them there will be quick and severe punishment up to and including termination.  It's that simple.