Ethics and laws are two very different ideas. A situation can be unethical yet not against the law. When you break a law you are punished with a fine, community service or jail time. If you break an ethical issue you are not arrested but yet you harm yourself by showing that you are not professional in your field.
It is important to understand how an issue is unethical but not illegal. For instance in principle I of the NEA code of ethic the third point states that a teacher should not suppress or distort subject matter relevant to a students learning. Many teachers do not agree with the theory of Evolution because of religious beliefs that they hold. However, ethical teacher should teach this theory to students regardless of how they feel. A student can then have that information and then decide whether or not they choice to accept it as truth or not. The 4th point in the NEA code of ethics states that a student should be protected from harmful conditions. I agree with this statement. In California there is a public high school where Lamar James is a senior.
James is a basketball player who is expected to be the next Michael Jordon. The school has begun to charge $100 dollars for tickets to some seats of the basketball games. The money is to be used for additional funding of the school. The school has also agreed to allow ESPN to show the high school games live. I feel that this school is unethical for doing so. They are in a sense exploiting their young athlete. This student only has a few months before he out of the school and given a huge NBA contract. I feel that if the school wants to gain for the student’s success then they should let the student live out his last days in high school and hope that he will donate his future fortune back to his school and community. Instead they are exploiting him for their own greed. This is not illegal but in my opinion is highly unethical of the school.
There are many situations that arise in any profession where decisions are made that are not illegal but hurts the students any way. Teaching is a profession where the consequences of unethical decision can be very harmful to the futures of students. Teachers and schools need to abide by ethics to not only protect students but to also be a role model. Teaching is best accomplished by examples. By have strong ethics as a teacher my students can have a greater success of using ethics in their own lives.