{"id":16347,"date":"2009-06-17T13:01:36","date_gmt":"2009-06-17T20:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=16347"},"modified":"2015-08-17T14:54:23","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T21:54:23","slug":"ethics-training-is-key-to-fighting-teachers-sexual-misconduct-professor-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/ethics-training-is-key-to-fighting-teachers-sexual-misconduct-professor-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethics training is key to fighting teachers\u2019 sexual misconduct, professor says"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 1995 movie\u00a0Mr. Holland\u2019s Opus<\/em>\u00a0is a widely praised film depicting a struggling composer who reluctantly becomes a teacher and eventually learns the value of his profession and his family.<\/p>\n

Troy Hutchings<\/strong>\u00a0thinks Mr. Holland should have lost his job and his teacher\u2019s certificate.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t Mr. Holland\u2019s in-class performance that concerns Hutchings, director of Student Services in the College of Education and a faculty member in the college. It\u2019s his relationship with Rowena, one of his students. In a famous scene at a bus stop, Mr. Holland and Rowena kiss.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe should be fired,\u201d Hutchings said. \u201cThat\u2019s sexual misconduct\u2014a violation of his fiduciary position.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFiduciary\u201d is not a term frequently heard in association with teachers. Then again, neither is \u201csexual misconduct\u201d\u2014a least not from a researcher\u2019s standpoint.<\/p>\n

Hutchings is one of only a handful of researchers in the United States who have examined the unseemly topic of teacher sexual misconduct with students.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the most part, these teachers are not monsters,\u201d Hutchings said. \u201cThese are often good people who torched their careers because of a bad decision. They\u2019re often not pedophiles. These are often boundary violators.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary Kay Laterneau\u2014the former teacher who had an affair with her underage student and eventually married him\u2014may be the most famous and shocking case, but Hutchings said most cases aren\u2019t nearly that extreme.<\/p>\n

In fact, he estimates that nearly 10 percent of students have experienced some type of sexual misconduct with teachers\u2014whether it\u2019s verbal or physical. It could be a comment made among the male teachers in the lounge about a teen\u2019s outfit or perhaps an inappropriate joke made during a teacher-student conference.<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, he said, it is often the best teachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat teachers develop great emotional ties to kids,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cThey have emotional intimacy with students. Once you develop that, it can be a very slippery slope. Do you invite students to your house? Do you give them a ride home in the rain? These situations can lead to troubles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emotional flirtation has been around for ages, he explained. \u201cIt used to be honorable to marry your teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Holland\u2019s situation isn\u2019t atypical. The Richard Dreyfuss character had a troubled marriage and a difficult home life. \u201cRight or wrong, he found something with his students that he felt he didn\u2019t have at home,\u201d Hutchings said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a new phenomenon,\u201d he continued. \u201cIt\u2019s always been there, but the reasons are coming to light. The media is our friend on this. They are shining the light of scrutiny under this rock.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interviews with teachers who have engaged in sexual misconduct with students show similarities. The men claim they are finding something they think they don\u2019t have while the women say, \u201cI fell in love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe men never say that,\u201d Hutchings said, and they are most likely to repeat the offense.<\/p>\n

The solution, Hutchings believes, lies in teacher education, specifically ethics. \u201cWe\u2019ve neglected the topic because of the moral assumption that teachers are good people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some teachers may not even realize what is happening before it\u2019s too late\u2014they may put themselves into positions they had never considered, he said. \u201cLater, they\u2019ll ask, \u2018Why wasn\u2019t I taught what to do?\u2019 They are not cognizant or prepared for the ethics of teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teachers have a \u201cfiduciary role\u201d with students, with a special trust placed upon teachers similar to therapists, he explained. He said colleges should be looking at prevention strategies.<\/p>\n

Hutchings recently was named the recipient of the 2009 Doug Bates Memorial Award. The national award honors an individual who has made a significant contribution to the field of educator ethics and professional practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 1995 movie\u00a0Mr. Holland\u2019s Opus\u00a0is a widely praised film depicting a struggling composer who reluctantly becomes a teacher and eventually learns the value of his profession and his family. Troy Hutchings\u00a0thinks Mr. Holland should have lost his job and his teacher\u2019s certificate. It wasn\u2019t Mr. Holland\u2019s in-class performance that concerns Hutchings, director of Student Services…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faculty-staff"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16347\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}