Legal and Ethical Implications for Classroom Managment

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l Legal and Ethical Implications for Classroom Management The first article I read was Assault by Eric Groves Sr. This article addresses the topic of assault in school. While most people will get the definition for the term assault from a dictionary, lawyers and judges look to federal and state cases to find the legal definition of the word. Harris v. United States is a court case that legally defines assault. This case took place in Ohio and the legal definition for assault is “the willful threat … to harm or touch another offensively, [where that] threat or attempt reasonably places the other in fear of such contact.” (Groves Sr, n.d.) In other words, while most people will think that assault is a physical act, it is in fact making someone think that you are going to physically abuse them. It is illegal for someone to assault another person. This article gives an example of a student being disruptive in class. The teacher makes a comment about causing physical harm to the student to make them stop the disruptive behavior. The disruptive behavior stops because the student believes that the teacher will physically harm him. If the student’s family hired a lawyer, a lawyer would be able to prove that the teacher assaulted the student. The teacher could lose their teaching credentials, their job, their money in a civil suit, and serve jail time. The author reminds his readers to consult the teaching strategies and problem solving techniques to avoid becoming emotional and irrational in the classroom. The author reminds the reader to stay professional and not lose their temper in a classroom. In the real world sometimes teachers can lose their composure, but a teacher should remember that students need a teacher not big emotional kid (Groves Sr., n.d.) I do not plan on ever making threats of violence to my students if they are not behaving properly. I found
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