Mandatory Reporting

When you are up to your belt buckle in alligators it is difficult to remind yourself that the original objective was to drain the swamp. Problems tend to take our focus off the objective.
Just such a situation exists with your schools thanks to the bureaucracy of education. The objective of educating students takes a back seat to other issues deemed more important.
Your Ohio Department of Education (ODE) added to the Code of Conduct for Ohio Educators. Who could object to defining behavior of professional educators? You decide.
The following three scenarios were sent by email to the board and others by Superintendent Dr. Doug Baker prior to adoption. The regulations have since been adopted. The scenarios may very well apply under the new code.

Scenario #1

Students are dismissed at 2:30 p.m. A teacher works an extra 2 hours to prepare for the next day's lessons. At 4:30 p.m. he enters his car in the faculty parking lot and begins to drive off school grounds. Prior to actually exiting school grounds, the teacher lights a cigarette. This teacher must be reported to the superintendent who then must report this teacher to the ODE Department of Professionalism and Ethics for using tobacco on school grounds. If the principal fails to report to the superintendent, the principal may lose his license for up to one year. If the superintendent fails to report to the ODE, the superintendent may lose his license for up to 1 year.

Scenario #2

Three elementary school teachers each have high school age sons on the football team. It's Friday and an away football game is scheduled. The three elementary teachers make plans to travel to the game together. On the way to the game, the teachers stop to have dinner. Two of the three teachers have a glass of wine with their meal. The teachers attend the game and return home without incident. The two teachers who drank a glass of wine must now be reported for being on school grounds at a student activity after having consumed alcohol. The teacher who did not drink may also be in trouble for not reporting the incident to the principal. It does not matter that these teachers came to the event as "parents" and had no supervisory duties. If a teacher is on any school grounds anywhere, the rules outlined in this document concerning drugs, alcohol and tobacco apply.

Scenario #3

A parent notices the two teachers above having a glass of wine at dinner, then going to the game. The parent also notices the principal eating, but not drinking at the same eatery. The parent notifies ODE of the event. The principal may be in jeopardy of losing his license for up to one year because he knew of or should have known of the situation but failed to report it promptly. The superintendent may also be in hot water if it can be determined he had knowledge of the event or should have had knowledge of the event, even though it had never been directed to him as a complaint or issue. For example, if the superintendent was walking to the concession stand at the football game and overheard two parents speaking of seeing teachers drink prior to coming to the game--the superintendent should have investigated the issue.


It would seem ODE has chosen to define both private and public behavior of educators and make us all reporting entities, tattlers. Our professional educators deserve better.