M11 REGULAR DISCUSSION
While laws and court decisions may guarantee you certain rights as a teacher, like all guarantees, they take effect only when they are pursued. You may need to decide if, when, or how to pursue your rights is a key practical question that you may have to confront more than once in your career.
Often, if these issues are confronted with skill, your rights are protected without ever going to court. In some cases, teachers simply choose to ignore the violation of their rights. But in any case, the bottom line is always the same: Legal rights are general and abstract; decisions on if and how to protect those rights are quite personal and practical.
In each of the following four cases, indicate:
(1) the legal protection (i.e., does the situation reflect a violation of teacher rights); and
(2) what you would choose to do if you were personally confronted by this issue.
Situation 1: The interview is going well as you apply for your first teaching position. You like the community and the school, and you have the feeling that they like you. During the interview, you are asked if you plan to marry.
Is this legal?
What would you do?
Situation 2: Dress:
As a first-year teacher, you are working hard and enjoying your career. You feel as though you get along very well with the students and faculty, but you are concerned when the principal asks that you stop wearing jeans to school and conform, like your colleagues, to the school dress code.
Is this legal?
What would you do?
Situation 3: Speech:
At your school’s parent-teacher meeting, a parent asks you about the lack of curricular materials in your classroom. There are not even enough textbooks to go around. You respond publicly that the school board simply has not appropriated enough funds for school materials, and the problem is with the school board.
The next morning you are greeted by the school principal and a school board member. You are told that your contract will not be renewed and, if you protest, you will receive a great deal of negative publicity and will probably become unemployable in most school districts. They advise you to leave quietly.
Is this legal?
What would you do?
Situation 4: Strike:
The teachers in your community have decided to strike for higher salaries. As a second-year teacher, you would also like a higher salary, but you are untenured. The school district has announced that teachers who participate in the strike will be terminated.
Is this legal?
What would you do?
Situation 5:
Bullying A student in your classroom was inspired by the video below, and upon seeing a student in the lunchroom become a victim of bullying intervenes resulting in a lunchroom fight. He was subsequently suspended for fighting and breaking the perpetrator’s arm.
Is this legal?
What would you do as the teacher?
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