Professions - an Ethical Reflection Essay

The majority of professions demand that decisions be made after taking the ethical decision-making paradigm into account. Making such moral decisions entails weighing and selecting among various options in a manner that complies with the established moral principles. It is necessary to recognize and eliminate unethical choices during the decision-making process before choosing the most ethically sound option. Being a school counselor is a crucial career that calls for moral judgment. The paper offers a reflection on responses to moral dilemmas involving boundaries, record-keeping and reporting, vulnerable populations, and confidentiality, along with an assessment of the choices’ advantages and disadvantages. The major emphasis in each case study is the use of an ethical decision-making model and also an application of ethical codes pertinent to the case study.

Section 1: Case Studies and Reflection

The first case study is a scenario of confidentiality. The scenario involves Ms. Sheffield, her estranged husband, Mr. Sheffield and their son, Richard. After Ms. Sheffield fled away from her abusive husband, she does not want the husband to be a part of her life or that of her son, but she did not disclose the information to the school management. However, after Richard performed well at the new school and made the honor roll, his name is among the best-performing students who are published in the newspaper, which gets the attention of Mr. Sheffield, who later starts to contact his estranged wife. As a result, Ms. Sheffield feels the school did not practice confidentiality as she maintains it was inappropriate for the school to publish Richard’s name without her consent.

In this scenario, Ms. Sheffield is correct only if the school did not have the policy to designate directory information such as that involving Richard’s grades or performance. However, since FEPRA allows for publicity of directory information, it is more likely that the school had such a policy. The other strength for this scenario is that it is most likely that the school had in place means for annual notification to parents of their rights as required by FEPRA, which involves school calendars, PTA newsletters, student handbooks, emails, websites, newspaper articles or even special letters. However, considering the sensitive situation of Ms. Sheffield as an overburdened parent and much consumed with providing the best possible life for her son, there were high chances that she could miss reading the fine prints about FEPRA. Therefore, it is solely her mistake since she was less concerned about the school life of her son. Similarly, Ms. Sheffield is breaking the law as she is hiding her child, not just from the husband, but also from the reality of life. The school counselor could have been better placed to help and also make informed decisions by providing legal aid if Richard and his mother needed protection in the form of legal documents.

The second case study is on record keeping and reporting, which involves Joseph, a seventh-grader, who is experiencing a difficult time adapting to the new school. Joseph’s father has not been involved in his son’s progress at school, but his stepmother is receptive and is always on task to attend parent conferences as well as in signing and checking Joseph’s daily progress reports. The question arising is whether it is ethical to involve Joseph’s stepmother in parent conferences and in checking and signing of progress, report, and other education records. As a school counselor, it is ethical to involve his stepmother in such school activities as it is evident that Joseph’s father is an absentee parent. The term parent as defined by FEPRA is “natural parent, a guarding or a person acting as a parent in the absence of a guarding or parent” (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), 2015). Therefore, it is legal and ethical to involve Joseph’s stepmother is school activities as she is present on a day-to-day basis in not only Joseph’s home but also the school activities such as checking and signing of progress and report records.

The other case involves research involving students, and whether the researcher followed FEPRA laws after deciding to use the disciplinary records of students under research to complete the data. Since the school counselor completed the necessary steps as indicated by FEPRA, he followed the laws to the latter. There are different reasons as to why the school counselor is said to have followed FEPRA laws. First, all the information was collected and analyzed by the counselor in efforts to have a better understanding of the pattern of discipline referrals in the school, all which was meant to find workable solutions to negative student behavior. Second, there were no personal identifiers as all the information containing aspects of specific students were omitted from the file. Besides, the parents of the students had consented to have their children included in the research. Lastly, the school counselor provided the counselor educator with the list of the students with all the information that personally identified the research subjects being removed to ensure the students remained anonymous. The major strength of this ethical decision is that all universities have internal review boards that are mandated to approve research projects, and thus ensure that human subjects are ethically and legally protected. Therefore, it is probable that the school district has a research department that the school counselor must have sought permission before conducting the study. Besides, the final report must have passed the FEPRA test to ensure that all types of identifying data were removed (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), 2015).

The other scenario is about boundaries, and it involves the question of discerning between sexual harassment and statutory rape. The scenario is about my school counseling colleague who is involved with a 17-year-old, the acceptable consent age in my state. According to the US Department of Education, Civil Rights (2016), even if the school reports any case of possible criminal behavior to the authority, the school is not relieved of its responsibilities to respond to the ill-conduct. It is illegal for an instructor or a school counselor to have sexual relations with a student regardless of the age of the victim. Any time that such a teacher or a school counselor engages in such activities, it amounts to an obvious breach of trust; hence other students lose confidence in the school counseling department. Therefore, the school counselor in question engaged in sexual harassment as he or she took advantage of the 17-year-old. There is no consensual sex between the two as the nature of the school counselor’s job regarding social, personal and emotional perspectives worsens (US Department of Education, Civil Rights, 2016).

The next scenario is about the vulnerable populations, and it involves a female student who is likely to be depressed since parts of her life are moving downwards as a result of a recent breakup with her boyfriend, who not only dumped her but also posted inappropriate information about the female on Facebook. The posts, according to the female friends are causing great harm to the lady, and there is a general worry about her condition. As a school counselor, there is the question of whether to reach out to her parents or if the situation fails to meet the threshold of clear and imminent danger. According to the ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors (2016), school counselors are required to strike a balance between the rights of the minors and those of the parent or guardian. Even though the primary responsibility, obligation, and loyalty is to students, it does not end there as the counselor should assess the severity of any situation and determine if it is an imminent danger scenario (ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors, 2016). In the provided case, there is responsibility beyond the student, and as a school counselor, it is important to feel off balance when weighing and negotiating between rights of either the student or the parent/guardian. As the scenario is a serious tug of war involving making a sound decision, it is essential to skillfully negotiate with the student after seeking assistance from other partners i.e. supervisors and colleagues in the consultation. The American School Counselors Association (2004) explains that when a school counselor is acting on information about student danger to self, parents should be informed with the required information, and the affected student should be informed about a possible breach of confidentiality beforehand. Making of such a decision requires utmost consideration of the issue of privacy as well as the aspect of imminent danger, all which will ensure maintenance of high level of confidentiality as possible (American School Counselors Association, 2004). The situation posses a clear and foreseeable harm as it is causing massive psychological and emotional distress to the female, hence it would be better if the school counselor involves the parents in efforts to help her get well and cope with the stressful situation.

Section 2: Enhancing Ethical Decision Making

According to Remley and Herlihy (2007), ethical issues frequently arise for school counselors as compared to professionals working in other settings. It is considerably challenging to work not only with minors but also with other members such as parents, school administrators, teachers as well as the members of the community as it sets a platform for inevitable legal and ethical dilemmas. Therefore, it is important for school counselors to be aware of and adhere to ethical codes to make sound ethical choices (Remley & Herlihy, 2007). In every situation with a choice that has a dilemma, the first step towards making sound and ethical decisions is to gather the facts. Before moving forward with any decision, it is necessary to have a full understanding of the situation at hand, hence avoid a breach of confidentiality/trust and also act in accordance with the legal framework. School counselors should always plan in advance in order to avoid future ethical problems.

All school counselors should also be conversant with relevant ethical codes, policies, and laws such as the ASCA and ACA codes of ethics. Therefore, the counselors should read carefully and adhere to the ethical standards as enshrined in the two codes of ethics. On top of reading and adhering to the codes of ethics, school counselors should also consult with other professionals such as other experienced colleagues, counselor educators, supervisors and also the professional association ethics committee (ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors, 2016). Such consultation enables the counselor to make sound decisions that are acceptable to other professions, hence making them legal and ethical. There is also the need for school counselors to stay up-to-date with current rulings and laws, particularly those relating to counseling with students or minors. Lastly, it is essential for all counselors to join appropriate professional associations, read relevant publications, and also participate in opportunities leading to professional development.

Ethical and Legal Challenges

In addressing the four scenarios of confidentiality, vulnerable populations, record keeping and reporting, and boundaries presented, there emerged various ethical and legal challenges. Even though there are clearly defined codes of ethics in the counseling profession, not all ethical dilemmas can be solved by adhering to the codes. Therefore, it is necessary to have a framework for analyzing and making ethical decisions. According to Preez and Goedeke (2013), a workable decision-making model involves eight steps. The first step is identifying the problem, which is followed by identifying the potential issues involved. The next step involves reviewing the relevant ethical guidelines. Next, a counselor should have a full understanding of the relevant laws and regulations. The counselor is then expected to obtain consultation from colleagues, supervisors, or even the counselor educator. The next step is to consider possible and probable courses of action as per the ethical and legal challenge at hand. The counselor then lists the consequences associated with the various courses of action, and lastly after considering the best course of action, he or she makes the decision.

For the case of confidentiality, there appears to be no significant ethical challenge as the school management was not aware of Ms. Sheffield’s marital problems, hence there was no breach of confidentiality. If Richard’s mother had notified the school of the situation with her estranged husband, it would have been possible to contain the problem of publicly publishing Richard’s name in the newspaper. For the second scenario, there is the ethical dilemma of whether or not to involve Joseph’s stepmother in parent conferences and also in checking and signing progress, report and other education records. The school administration has the challenge of whether to allow Joseph’s stepmother to be part of Joseph’s education records. However, upon full understanding of FEPRA, a stepparent has the right to check and sign progress and report records when he or she is present on a day-to-day basis in the home with the child in question.

The next scenario is on boundaries where the school counselor has sexual relations with a 17-year-old individual, an age that is considered consensual age. The ethical dilemma is whether to term the act as illegal or just considered it legal as the individual has attained the consensual age. It is quite a challenge to discern whether it is sexual harassment or statutory rape. However, there is the need to understand that a school counselor being in such a critical position should not engage in sexual harassment with a student, as the former is charged with assisting the former with psychological and emotional challenges. It is possible to conclude that the counselor took advantage of the student, a decision that makes educators and counselors lose their jobs and certificates, and in most states, even face felony charges. The last scenario is on vulnerable populations where a female becomes depressed after a breakup with her boyfriend, and the boy posts inappropriate information directed to the girl on Facebook. There is a very serious challenge in this scenario as the counselor is in a dilemma of whether or not to classify the problem as that one of imminent danger. However, judging from ASCA Ethical standards for school counselors (2004 and 2016), any activity that is likely to cause harm to the student (imminent harm) should be considered an exception to confidentiality. Therefore, the ASCA and ACA codes of ethics allow the counselor to inform the parent of the condition of their children even though it appears to be a breach of trust. Besides, the counseling codes of ethics suggest that counselors who suspect abuse should consider the welfare of students first and further report it to the authorities and parents regardless of the concerns of violating student-counselor trust (Remley & Herlihy, 2007).

Among my major strength in when responding to the scenarios is a full understanding of the ASCA/ASA codes of ethics. The codes of ethics outline how counselors should respond to challenges and dilemmas in their profession. For the scenario related to confidentiality, I was well equipped with the information put forward by the ASCA Ethical standards for school counselors (2004 and 2016). The ethical standards are an essential framework for the counselors as they help them address the various day-to-day dilemmas in counseling.

Section 3: Summary Reflection

This assignment is particularly important as it enables me to develop as an ethical school counselor. With the various dimensions of scenarios addressed in the assignment, I am better placed to address legal and ethical dilemmas in a counseling setting. Besides, the assignment has stressed the essence of reading and fully understanding the ASCA/ASA code of ethics that directly affect school counselors and their clients/students.

It is essential to note that practicing as an ethical school counselor as well as adhering to the legal framework offers prospects for positive social change within schools. As an ethical school counselor, one is better placed to make sound decisions that are guided by reason, and also ensure that all stakeholders within the school have their emotional and psychological problems addressed. For instance, an ethical counselor is capable of detecting a student with emotional distress, and thus seek to identify the cause of the problem. The result is that the student will find help even though it will be involuntary, such as when the authority is alarmed in case the student is in an abusive relationship, or is neglected by the parents.

In conclusion, as an ethical school counselor, I will further improve my ability to practice in a legal and ethical manner. Among the personal activities to engage in so as to remain ethical in the profession is through regular reading of the counseling codes of ethics, hence be conversant with what is expected of counseling professionals as well as students. The other consideration is to ensure that I consult with other experienced colleagues, supervisors, and also the counseling educator. I will also join relevant counseling associations to ensure that I network with professionals who are experienced in the field of school counseling.

References

ASCA Ethical standards for school counselors. (2004). Retrieved February 5, 2017, from American School Counselors Association: http://www.txca.org/Images/tca/Documents/ASCA%20Ethical%20Standards.pdf

ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors. (2016). Ethical Standards, 1-12.

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). (2015). Retrieved February 5, 2017, from US Department of Education: https://ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html

Preez, E., & Goedeke, S. (2013). Second Order Ethical Decision-Making in Counseling Psychology: Theory, Practice, and Process. New Zealand Journal of Psychology, 42 (3), 44-49.

Remley, T. P., & Herlihy, B. (2007). Ethical, legal, and professional issues in counseling. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

US Department of Education, Civil Rights. (2016). Retrieved February 5, 2017, from https://www.ed.gov/category/keyword/civil-rights