Ethics

Blog: Ethical Dilemmas


The male school counselor who is trying to get a male student to “change his views” on that students sexual identity:
I do not think this counselor acted ethically. ASCA's standards very clearly describe our job as advocacy for many things including gender, gender identity/expression and sexual orientation. As an advocate, our job is to be supportive and a resource of knowledge, not someone who's job is to make a student feel that their decision is wrong. Advocacy involves providing resources and options, but this counselor is too close and who “knows someone who can help him change his thinking”. I do not find this type of a situation to be challenging. I am a big believer in personal choice regardless of my personal views. Every person should have the opportunity to make choices for themselves, but on the other side of that cuff is the responsibility for ones actions. The only part I would find difficult about this situation is working with a counselor who would disrespect a students journey this way.


The Female counselor who is also a Track coach:
This is so un-ethical its overwhelming. If a parent decided to let their child experiment with alcohol that would be one thing (not that I'd condone that either) but throwing a party? Sure, some students would find you to be super cool after that, but realistically, you've lost all sense of authority. I remember my training for my graduate assistnatship and the amount of emphasis that was placed on never drinking with residents even if they were 21. I, at the time, “didn't see the big deal” but thankfully, that type of mentality passed. Part of the reason this scenario is such a hot button for me right now is that one of the MU grads “resigned” after pictures were placed on Twitter of him at an off campus party. He was visibly intoxicated. I was so upset that he did that to himself. He has an alcohol problem, and he and I have talked about it at length, but it was just a really sad sight to see that his addiction was ruining other parts of his life too. How are we as counselors supposed to stress the importance of “educational choices” and the magnitude to which they will influence life choices if we are openly condoning misbehavior like this school counselor did?!


The football coach and counselor situation
I highly doubt that the only thing the football coach was looking at was “potential for eligibility”. It is not uncommon for educational requirements to be fudged by big time universities in order to recruit potential “star” players. I find this repugnant. Even though this has been going on for a long time, we as a society now are suffering from this disease where nothing is anyone’s responsibility because it is ALWAYS someone else's fault. If a regular student doesn't have the grades to get into the university, neither should some star player who will bring money to the university. I know the NBA has really gotten all over this issue, and my hope is that it will extend to all college level and professional sports. When the school counselor showed the football coach the records, they violated the privacy laws between the counselor and student. Odds are the student can deduce who told the football coach their grades. Lets be honest, if this student is not in good academic standing the coach will probably bring it up to bate the student into working harder. This could easily a) ruin the counseling relationship or b) open the relationship to manipulative access whereby the student now feels like the counselor owes it to the student to help them achieve the grades to get into this university. Either would taint the relationship. 

 
Thompson, RA (2012). Professional School Counseling; Best practices for working in the schools.    New York; Routleage