Ms. Lore is a high-school drama teacher who is generally well-liked, especially by her beloved students from the school’s drama club. As both a teacher and a leader of the club, she is particularly close with some of her students. One day, during rehearsals for the end of the year play, Tamara, one of the leads, has some sort of a breakdown. She starts crying on stage, which prompts Ms. Lore to leave with the girl to her office. Ms. Lore questions the reason for Tamara’s hysteria, especially after she remembers Tamara has been acting out of character for the past week or so. Tamara seems to be ready to tell her teacher what is happening but makes her promise not to tell anybody, which Ms. Lore does. Tamara tells Ms. Lore that her dad has returned home after working overseas. He is an alcoholic and extremely abusive, both verbally and physically. Ms. Lore now faces an ethical dilemma: Is it her obligation to report abuse at Tamara’s home or should she not break Tamara’s trust and possibly take the matters into her own hands by helping the girl in some way, while keeping her secret?
In this post, it is apparent that the teacher faces an ethical dilemma of whether to report her colleague on her conduct in relation to the student who seems to have a mental disability. In addition to this, the teacher should decide whether they want to address the child’s condition in any way. In my opinion, the teacher should report their colleague to the principal because their conduct is unethical. One of the aspects, which are important to consider here, is courage (Lynch, 2016). Reporting a colleague may tarnish the reputation of the pre-school and make others consider the new teacher a “snitch.”
Reference
Lynch, M. (2016). Six core characteristics of ethical teaching. The Edvocate. Web.