Mrs. Nelson is a 5th grade teacher at Xander Elementary School. Mrs. Nelson is very tech-savvy and uses many forms of social media to communicate with her parents and students. At the beginning of the year, she asks parents to follow her on a communication app, Remind, so that they can receive important text reminders about upcoming events. Remind is typically used for group communication, for example, Mrs. Nelson might send out a reminder to the class that they have a field trip and will need to remember their lunches. After receiving a group text, parents then have the option to respond individually to Mrs. Nelson and they can then carry on a conversation in a private environment if they need to discuss more student-specific information.
Many of her students have their own cell-phones and have also begun following Mrs. Nelson the Remind app, and while does not encourage this, she doesn’t remove them when they do. It has never been an issue in the past, and she assumes it might help them to know what is going with upcoming and important events too.
Mrs. Nelson is a very loved and respected teacher, and she is known for providing a very safe and nurturing environment in her classroom. Whenever a student is struggling with anything, they always know that Mrs. Nelson will listen and support them. Because of the precarious nature of 5th grade, students often come to Mrs. Nelson with all kinds of problems. After sending out a Remind text about the upcoming early dismissal day, a student, Maddie, responded with a private message to Mrs. Nelson telling her that she needed to talk to her about a problem. Mrs. Nelson tells her to come to her first thing in the morning, so they can talk before class begins. The next morning, Maddie shows up early to class as instructed, and tells Mrs. Nelson that she thinks something is wrong with her because she doesn’t like boys the way her friends do, and but she really doesn’t want to be gay. She is afraid of what her parents and friends would say if she never likes boys the way she thinks she is supposed to. Though she was a little taken aback by this confession, Mrs. Nelson assures her that she will be ok, and that it is ok that she doesn’t have the answers to those questions right now. Thinking about it later that evening, Mrs. Nelson, was concerned that she hadn’t been supportive enough in talking with Maddie, so she sends her a private Remind text saying, "I want you to know that you are a very smart and beautiful young lady, and if you like boys or girls, that won’t change. I won’t say anything to anyone about our conversation."
Questions:
1. Identify the behaviors (if any) that you believe violate standards in the Educator Code of Ethics?
2. Which standards do you think were violated, explain your reasoning. If you feel that no standards were violated, explain your reasoning?
3. Should Mrs. Nelson have handled this situation differently so as not to violate the Code of Ethics, or (if you feel that there was no violation) to avoid her actions being called into question?