Individual Decisions
When it comes to making ethical decisions, you alone are responsible for the outcome, so you must take the necessary steps to ensure that you have properly arrived at your decision. While organizations may assist you in making ethical decisions through the Code of Ethics, flow charts, and other tools, the responsibility to make the ethical decision rests solely with you.
Taking on individual responsibility can pose great challenges, especially in a group dynamic. Simply following a group’s unethical decision-making process does not alleviate you of responsibility to laws and/or ethics. You must be able to act independently of the group, while still maintaining ethical behavior.
Often, responsibility toward varying groups will create ethical challenges. For example, employees of a school district must weigh and balance many responsibilities and duties to students, parents, the general public, the Board, unions, and even other teachers. As an individual, you must be aware of the conflict that these groups can create and your responsibility to each of these groups.
Let’s take a quick look at an example of an individual decision. During the course of your interactions with a female student, you learn that the student is pregnant, and you suspect that her pregnancy is the result of sexual abuse by an adult. Knowing that she is under the age of 18, you must decide whether to follow your mandated reporter duties. During discussions with the teaching staff, in which you keep the student’s information anonymous, others suggest that this issue does not fall under mandated reporting guidelines. Regardless of the group’s thoughts, you must determine if you need to make the mandated report, based on your suspicion and information.