As for your blogs this week, please
choose 3 ethical dilemmas which you personally find the most challenging.
For each of these, note: (1) whether you believe the counselor acted
ethically (2) your rationale for making this decision, (3) the relevant ASCA
ethical standard(s) involved and (4) what was personally challenging to you in
this dilemma.
Scenario #7: The school counselor coaches high school varsity track
and has students over for sleepovers and cookouts, allowing them to drink
alcohol (Thompson, 2012).
The
counselor in scenario seven did not act ethically in any sense of the word. Just
the fact that the counselor had students over to her house on multiple
occasions is a violation of the ASCA ethical standard A.4. Dual Relationships
(ASCA, 2010). First, it says that
counselors are to “avoid dual relationships that might impair their objectivity
and increase the risk of harm to students.” In this case, the dual relationship is that of school
counselor/track coach, and then that of “friend” and provider of alcohol. This goes right along with another
point of the standard, “maintain appropriate professional distance with
students at all times” (ASCA, 2010).
This counselor obviously did not do as such. In addition, the fact of the matter is that the
counselor is serving alcohol to minors, which is obviously completely
unlawful. Aside from that, this
kind of behavior puts students in danger, especially in the moments after the
counselor leaves them unsupervised.
Counselors “are concerned with the educational, academic, career,
personal and social needs and encourage the maximum development of every
student” (ASCA, 2010). All of these students needs are hindered through the
actions allowed by the counselor. I
think that, in this case, the counselor is confusing the value of beneficence
with the opposite intention of nonmaleficence. In other words, she must think that she is doing a “good”
thing, when really she is doing harm.
This
scenario was personally challenging to me because there is certainly a fine
line between being friendly with students and being their friends. While I have never imagined going to
these extremes, I have had students with whom I thought I could develop a
better working relationship if I were able to let them know that I do, in fact,
have a socially fun side, instead of playing the strict role of teacher. I have also wondered whether or not to
give some of my more at-risk students my contact information for when they move
on to high school in case they need someone to go to for support. I can honestly say that I have done so
with only one student ever, and that was just because I trusted her to not give
my information away to others.
Still, even in this case, I couldn’t imagine being so unprofessional as
the counselor in this scenario.
Scenario #11: A middle school counselor meets with a
student who has attempted suicide and does not want to go home. The counselor believes that it is an
effort for the student to get attention and gives the student a suicide hotline
number and sends her on her way home (Thompson, 2012).
I
do not believe the counselor acted ethically in scenario #11. There are several ethical standards
that relate to this situation.
First, counselors have responsibilities to students, specifically, to
“promote the welfare of individual students and collaborate with them to develop
an action plan for success” (ASCA, 2010). By ignoring this student’s cry for
help, whether fabricated or not, does not promote that student’s welfare. Second, counselors have a
responsibility to act when there is a danger to self or others (Standard A.7.),
a.k.a. duty to warn. “Inform
parents/guardians and/or appropriate authorities when a student poses a danger
to self or others. This is to be done after careful deliberation with other
counseling professionals” (ASCA, 2010).
Under this standard, it is obvious that a risk assessment would have
been necessary in this situation.
Further, there are legal and ethical liabilities for releasing a student
that is a risk to him/herself. A
counselor’s duty to warn is a legal duty, and there could be serious
ramifications if the counselor fails to do so, despite whether or not the
situation is “attention-seeking.”
This
scenario is personally challenging to me because I know what it is like to
suspect a student of exaggerating the truth to get attention, avoid a
situation, or for other reasons. I know how time-consuming it can be to
intervene with such students, and how sometimes it is just easier to say, “OK,
here’s some information, now go figure it out yourself.” However, in this scenario, this student
is obviously making a cry for help, and considering her past suicide attempts,
that cry for help should be taken seriously regardless.
Scenario #13: A fifth-grade female was prostituted
out by her mother, became pregnant, placed in foster care, and is being
harassed by students at her new school.
The student is unaware of what really happened to her while the
counselor reassures her, gives her support, and deals with the harassing students
on an individual basis (Thompson, 2012).
I
believe that this counselor is behaving somewhat ethically in her interactions
with this particular student, and I agree that the students who are harassing
this girl need intervention as well.
Still, there are other ethical considerations to be made. When I read this scenario, the first
thing that came to mind was that students have three rights: “the right to
information, the right to choose, and the right to privacy” (Herlihy &
Corey, 1996, as cited by Dollarhide & Saginak, 2012). The girl in this situation does not
understand what really happened to her!
How can she work through her circumstances if she does not understand
them? This counselor has a
responsibility to this student, and in order for her to show concern for this
girl’s educational, academic, personal and social needs she needs to do more
than offer reassurance. I believe
that this situation warrants a referral to appropriate outside resources (ASCA
standard A.5.: appropriate referrals). She needs assistance with what to do
about this child whom she is going to give birth to at such a young age. She most definitely needs intense
therapy considering everything that she recently went through. As for the other students who are
harassing, it would seem that a preventative, educating approach might be
appropriate. Standard E.2:
Multicultural and Social Justice Advocacy and Leadership (ASCA, 2010) seems
appropriate in this situation. Particularly appropriate is the part of the
standard that states, “develop competencies in how prejudice, power and various
forms of oppression… affect self, students and all stakeholders.” This would need to be tactfully done in
a way that does not exemplify this girl’s situation, but instead look at all forms
of oppression and their effects.
This
situation is challenging for me because to think of working with such a student
breaks my heart. I know that the
unfortunate truth is that there are people who would actually put their own
children through such atrocious situations, and that disgusts me. I also know how mean kids can be,
especially when they lack understanding of a situation. I feel compelled to educate students so
that such situations do not occur with such frequency; however, I know that it
can be difficult to inspire change in the thinking of young people.
Many
aspects of the scenarios we were given truly do demonstrate ethical
dilemmas. I am glad that we have
such ethical standards to which we can refer, especially knowing that some of the
situations presented are similar to the realities we will face some day as
counselors.
References:
American School
Counselor Association (2010).
Ethical standards for school counselors. Alexandria,
VA: Author.
Dollarhide, C.T., & Saginak,
K.A. (2012). Comprehensive school counseling programs
(2nd
Ed.). New York: Pearson, Inc.
Thompson, R.A.
(2012). Professional School
counseling; Best practices for working in
the
schools. New York: Routledge.
No comments:
Post a Comment