<p>Not a teacher of their kid. Amy says go tell the Principal. Sounds like a good way to get sued as the teacher was not in direct contact with the kid. Maybe she should quietly find another school and move on. This is not 1600’s New England. Thoughts?</p>
<p>Don’t most schools/companies have ethical standards for their employees?</p>
<p>Students can be kicked off school sports teams & or pulled out of EC’s for things they do off school grounds.</p>
<p>They fire teachers for unethical behavior all the time, they even fire teachers for behaving against district policy but * for* the rights of the student. Such as when a teacher was fired when she objected to an autistic boy being paddled.</p>
<p>Many states have moral clauses in teacher contracts. Teachers have been fired for being pregnant and unmarried ( but our district hired a superintendent whose past personal history included that same situation when she was superintendent of another district)
& while I would not make that case under all circumstances, one instance of an error in judgement is often accompanied by many more- as it has been with our superintendent. ( well not really bad judgement- since she knows what she is doing- she just doesn’t care)</p>
<p>Teachers have also been fired for drinking alcohol in public, so I would guess that for a married teacher to be having an affair with a married adult with a child in the school where she teaches ( although that is really irrelevant- because the affair is enough), would be enough for grounds for dismissal.</p>
<p>I think most teacher contracts include an “ethics” clause. At least in my state, I do not think they get fired very much at all for ethical reasons. (excluding illegal activity with students). Our major state newspaper did a series on all the teacher transgressions that were covered up and where school districts let people move on without anything on record. I don’t think teachers get fired much at all for any reason once they have tenure.</p>
<p>A few years ago two of our HS teachers began an affair and both got a divorce from their respective spouses. I don’t think kids should be all over each other in the hallways, but neither do I think it’s appropriate for teachers–esp. when they are married to other people!</p>
<p>Due to our school’s size, all students had to have both of these teachers. The kids were all well aware of what was happening. IMO, this was not conducive to an appropriate educational setting. I tried to use it as a teaching experience for my kids, but parents, and students, should not have been put in that position.</p>
<p>Since the two people involved were not only in the same state, but same building, I don’t believe protests that it was " only" emotional.
Besides, I also feel that emotional is more of a betrayal than " only" physical.
:p</p>
<p>Doesn’t really matter what “we” believe. We can only go on what was stated in the letter.</p>
<p>I was just saying that it would be hard to have any kind of an ethics policy that came in to play if a parent and teacher were only emailing and phoning, regardless of the content.</p>
You would be surprised how often this happens. Having worked in a school, I could top this easily. Our school superintendent went for a walk one Sunday morning in a county park and stumbled upon two 5th grade teachers cozying up on a park bench. Both were married, not to each other. awkwardddddd. The next year they were split up to two different schools.</p>
<p>The advice is poor, imo. It won’t bring her husband back and is vindictive and mean. What if she knew of two doctors having an ‘affair’ - would she inform the chief of staff? How about two people in her company? Why pick on teachers?
I can’t imagine a boss wanting to get involved in a couple’s messy life.
If the wife doesn’t like her husband having an ‘emotional’ affair and he won’t quit then she should leave him.</p>
<p>Here in PA - ethics normally covers things much more salacious. Like watching pornography during school (yes, it happened) or becoming ‘close’ with your third grade student and stalk her until middle school, getting your teaching assignment changed to be ‘with’ her and having sex with her (i.e. sexually assaulting) when she is 13 years old. Yes, this happened too and he is in jail.</p>
<p>I think you are confusing morals and ethics. Except as it pertains to student contact I don’t think schools have the right to determine morals anymore.</p>
<p>I don’t know what an “emotional affair” is. Made up and undefined terms that could mean so many different things to different people are hardly a basis to form an opinion.</p>
<p>“I don’t believe protests that it was " only” emotional."</p>
<p>I wouldn’t believe it if it were coming from the husband, but it’s not. It’s the wronged wife who states that it was only emotional. Someone feeling hurt enough to compile a paper trail of the affair and contemplate sending it to the other woman’s boss and husband has every incentive to impute worse behavior to her spouse, so my guess is that she really believes it didn’t get physical. His side of the story is probably that they’re just buddies.</p>
<p>Since their child wasn’t involved, I wouldn’t think this is the school’s business even if the teacher and husband eloped together. Where they were merely sending texts and emails that the wife feels crossed a line…hell no. Amy is way off base.</p>
<p>I was surprised at Amy’s answer, too. The wife’s real grievance is with her husband, not with the teacher. I think she has plenty on her hands addressing the condition of her marriage and her relationship with her spouse and shouldn’t waste time tattling. (I have now admitted sort of publicly that I read “Ask Amy”. Yikes.)</p>
<p>Sometime back in the late 90’s at certain Seattle elementary school (NW neighborhood), the PTO president had an affair with the uber-popular male teacher. Since the children of the PTO president (a mom) had to attend that school, the administration had the male teacher transferred. Because this guy was so popular with both kids and parents, people were not happy with the PTO president.</p>
<p>If it impacts the children, something should be done.</p>
<p>At our high school, the principal (female, divorced) was having an affair with the married principal of the middle school (but at our school, the middle school and high school are one facility and the high school principal is the boss of the middle school principal). The middle school principal was married to the head of the music department (for both MS and HS). Their son also attended the high school at the time. Everyone knew about it. Eventually, the long marriage of the MS principal and his wife, the music dept. head, ended in divorce. The poor music teacher had to work for the HS principal, her boss, who was having an affair with her husband who also worked for the HS principal.</p>
<p>How would a school district be able to defend this policy? As a former teacher, I would not work for a district that could fire me for doing something that is perfectly legal, assuming the teacher is merely drinking and not engaging in public intoxication or lewd behavior. Seems like a lawsuit in the making if a teacher was fired for having a drink at a restaurant or bar on his own time.</p>
<p>No way any public school could defend such a policy. Even teachers have basic rights which covers pretty much anything legal. Only major exception is dating students even of legal age and that is due to presumed power imbalance etc…</p>
<p>Agreed. That’s a ridiculous policy, in my opinion, and much too intrusive in the private lives of teachers. As for the original post, I think that unless it’s a situation that directly affects a student in a negative or harmful way, it’s none of the school administration’s business.</p>
<p>I don’t know what state this was in- but for many jobs you can be fired for about anything. If you are employed at will, your employer does not need good cause to fire you. In every state but Montana (which protects employees who have completed an initial “probationary period” from being fired without cause), employers are free to adopt at-will employment policies, and many of them have. In fact, unless your employer gives some clear indication that it will only fire employees for good cause, the law presumes that you are employed at will.</p>