bradshreffA few weeks ago, I learned that a teacher my little brother Travis had as a kid was arrested and charged with stalking his ex-girlfriend. It was a pretty intense case, as the news reported it, including thousands of calls and even putting a GPS tracker on her new boyfriend’s car.
The news piece was shared to my brothers and I from our dad, who was a teacher at the school with this teacher when we were all kids, and at one point he was even a family friend. The former connection made it interesting to me, but I wouldn’t have gone so far as to say that I really cared. Sure, his job is a teacher, but being a stalker doesn’t exactly impact the students in that class.
Maybe that’s a slightly callous opinion, but as I’ve talked about before, few other professions have the moral standard that teachers are held to, and few other professions have it for seemingly no reason. Fine, he’s a stalker (allegedly), that doesn’t mean he isn’t a good teacher or that those actions endanger the children. I’d say the same thing about drunk driving or public drunkenness. Sure, none of those things are good, and they show questionable decision making at the very least, but they don’t mean that the kids are getting a lesser education (unless of course the teacher is teaching students that those aren’t bad things, or they’re showing up to work drunk).
What really struck me from this scenario though was Travis’ reaction. He was truly annoyed by it. I explained what I said above, that ultimately I didn’t feel like he deserved to be fired over it, but Travis felt differently.
The way he tells it, knowing that this is what his teacher is up to outside of work tarnishes the memory of class.
In my argument, I am considering the rights of the teacher, and somewhat cavalierly ignoring the long-term impact on students. Before this moment, Travis looked back on fifth grade and remembered a teacher that was really great, active, caring, personal. Now though, he looks back and wonders “What was he doing after that last bell?”
I’m not completely sold on the idea that this means teachers should be held to such a high moral standard. We are still people, we are imperfect creatures, we make mistakes. Those mistakes shouldn’t cause us to lose our jobs in most cases. Maybe they should though.
But where do we draw that line? Should I be fired if I get excessive speeding tickets? Do we only include felony charges? Or only if it makes the news? Do we only get fired if we don’t self report?
I don’t have answers on this one. I’m calling for input. Use the comments or reach out on twitter and let me know.