By: Kelton Brooks
Administrative staff employed in the Oxford School District must strictly abide by the Mississippi Educator code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct policy.
This policy discretely elucidates any ethical and unethical conduct that faculty and staff must be aware of during the hiring process.
According to the Mississippi Code of Ethics policy, “Ethical conduct is any conduct which promotes the health, safety, welfare, discipline and morals of students and colleagues.
“Unethical conduct is any conduct that impairs the license holder’s ability to function in his/her employment position or a pattern of behavior that is detrimental to the health, safety, welfare, discipline, or morals of students and colleagues.” http://www.jackson.k12.ms.us/teachers/mde_educator_ethics_conduct.pdf
In Greenville, MS, a former high school football coach, Dwight Bowling, was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison on Aug. 16 for molestation charges against teenage boys, according to the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.
The boys were between the ages of 13 and 18.
The officials who worked the case said that the 13-year-old boy who was with Bowling at the time of his arrest accused him of improper touching.
Bowling accounted for eight Mississippi sexual offense statues, according to Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) http://www.rainn.org/files/reportingdatabase/Mississippi/MississippiStatueofLimitations.pdf
Five of the sexual charges Bowling was charged for, had no limitations on prosecutions.
This means that if a victim was assaulted 20 years ago, his or her sex offender could still be charged on any day.
Ex-teacher and music minister John Langworthy was charged Sept.7 for sexual crimes in the Jackson and Clinton area that he committed in the 1980s, according to the Mississippi Link.
Langworthy was charged with eight counts of sexual gratification of lust and six counts of fondling children.
He had sexual relations with at least five boys between the ages of eight and 12 years old.
“Every year I have an authoritative figure to address the Code of Ethics policy to my staff,” said Michael Martin, Principal at Oxford High School.
“I’ve been here for about four and a half years and there haven’t been any accusations of improper conduct,” Martin said.
Martin was reluctant to go into detail about the protocol of the policy if a teacher or staff member was accused of charges of sexual relations, but he later said that anything that is deemed unethical is listed in the Code of Ethics policy.
According to Standard 4, Educator/Student relationship of the Ethics policy, an educator should always maintain a professional relationship with all students, both in and outside the classroom.
“The only way we allow texting between students and teachers is if a coach sends a mass text to his team about sports preferences or if a teacher solely speaks on school matters,” said Patrick Robinson, Principal of Lafayette High School.
This conduct is unethical if “soliciting, encouraging, participating or initiating inappropriate written, verbal, electronic, physical or romantic relationship with a student,” occurs, according to Standard 4.2 number 6.
This detail is emphasized in example number 10 of ethical conduct, “electronic communication such as texting.”
Robinson is strongly against the use of profanity and/or sexual language which he reiterated many times.
“I simply do not condone it, I take great offense to it,” Robinson said.
Standard 1.2 number 3 under Professional Conduct reads, “Inappropriate language on school grounds or any school-related activity” is considered unethical.
Due to the rising factor of social networking, the Code of Ethics policy was revised in January 2011.
“I encourage my staff not to “friend” current students on Facebook, if the student has graduated, that is beyond my control” Robinson said.
Robinson did go on to say that “If an action such as this is discovered, the law has to investigate and I must follow proper procedure of the ethics policy.”
Standard 4.2 example number 11, “invitation to social networking.”
Robinson has been an administrator in the Mississippi school system for 21 years, but this is his first year at Lafayette High.
Prior to relocating to the Oxford School District, he was in the Jackson School District when he did recall an occurrence between a teacher and student.
However, Robinson refused to go into further detail about the matter.
“To my knowledge, there has been no incident of such a case here, and I plan to keep it that way.”
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