Mrs. Nelson is a 5th grade teacher at Xander Elementary School.Mrs. Nelson is very tech-savvy and uses many forms of social mediato communicate with her parents and students. At the beginning ofthe year, she asks parents to follow her on a communication app,Remind, so that they can receive important text reminders aboutupcoming events. Remind is typically used for group communication,for example, Mrs. Nelson might send out a reminder to the classthat they have a field trip and will need to remember theirlunches. After receiving a group text, parents then have the optionto respond individually to Mrs. Nelson and they can then carry on aconversation in a private environment if they need to discuss morestudent-specific information. Many of her students have their owncell-phones and have also begun following Mrs. Nelson the Remindapp, and while does not encourage this, she doesn’t remove themwhen they do. It has never been an issue in the past, and sheassumes it might help them to know what is going with upcoming andimportant events too. Mrs. Nelson is a very loved and respectedteacher, and she is known for providing a very safe and nurturingenvironment in her classroom. Whenever a student is struggling withanything, they always know that Mrs. Nelson will listen and supportthem. Because of the precarious nature of 5th grade, students oftencome to Mrs. Nelson with all kinds of problems. After sending out aRemind text about the upcoming early dismissal day, a student,Maddie, responded with a private message to Mrs. Nelson telling herthat she needed to talk to her about a problem. Mrs. Nelson tellsher to come to her first thing in the morning, so they can talkbefore class begins. The next morning, Maddie shows up early toclass as instructed, and tells Mrs. Nelson that she thinkssomething is wrong with her because she doesn’t like boys the wayher friends do, and but she really doesn’t want to be gay. She isafraid of what her parents and friends would say if she never likesboys the way she thinks she is supposed to. Though she was a littletaken aback by this confession, Mrs. Nelson assures her that shewill be ok, and that it is ok that she doesn’t have the answers tothose questions right now. Thinking about it later that evening,Mrs. Nelson, was concerned that she hadn’t been supportive enoughin talking with Maddie, so she sends her a private Remind textsaying, “I want you to know that you are a very smart and beautifulyoung lady, and if you like boys or girls, that won’t change. Iwon’t say anything to anyone about our conversation.”

Questions:

1. Identify the behaviors (if any) that you believe violatestandards in the Educator Code of Ethics?

2. Which standards do you think were violated, explain yourreasoning. If you feel that no standards were violated, explainyour reasoning?

3. Should Mrs. Nelson have handled this situation differently soas not to violate the Code of Ethics, or (if you feel that therewas no violation) to avoid her actions being called intoquestion?