Module 10

Teachers’ Rights and Responsibilities
Situation # 5

In looking at situation #5, (page 387) I think of how busy I am as a teacher. In this situation the teacher feels that everything is calm at her post in the cafeteria and steps out to make a school related phone call. While she is gone, a student slips and falls and breaks his arm. The teacher gets sued. While I would not leave my kindergarteners to make a telephone call, I think of all the things that happen in the classroom that take my attention. Walking to the playground one day, one of my students got pushed into the brick wall on the outside of the building. I was no more than 5 feet from the student in the middle of the line, but there was nothing I could do to foresee it. He stepped on another child’s shoe while walking and that child pushed him and he fell into the wall. In the cafeteria situation the teacher was at fault for neglecting to be in her “assigned post.” In my situation I was in my “assigned post” but the child got hurt anyway. Our text states, on page 388, that when looking into teacher negligence cases, courts “use two standards: (1) whether a reasonable person with similar training would act in the same way and (2) whether or not the teacher could have foreseen the possibility of an injury.” According to this, I would not be held legally responsible for what happened on the way to the playground. . . which is quite a relief!

Students’ Rights and Responsibilities
Situation # 10

Situation ten, beginning on page 393, is concerning the issue of student records and who has the right to see them. A teacher is reviewing a student’s folder after school and the student walks in and wants to see it. The teacher refuses and the student tells her parents, who then call the school and want to see the folder themselves. The Family Rights and Privacy Act, or the Buckley Amendment (1974), allows parents and guardians access to their child’s educational records. If a student who is over the age of 18 requests to see the folder, they must also be allowed to do so. In this situation, it does not appear that the teacher should have given the student access to the folder, but does have to show it to the parents at their request. This decision seems fair to me, but what about the student. Obviously letting a first grader review the content of his or her folder would not be appropriate because they would not understand it. There are plenty of 16-year-olds, however, who are mature enough to understand the content of their folder and perhaps should be allowed to see it. Maybe it is up to the parents, when they review it to answer any questions their child may have about what the folder contains. I don’t think I will have any students asking to see their records, but it’s helpful to know that I don’t have to let them!