Case Study #3

Case Study #3:

You are a high school teacher in your first year of teaching. You  have noticed that one of your students appears to have developed a crush on you. Until today, you viewed the student’s crush as endearing and your student as harmless. You are sitting at your desk in your classroom after school, and no one else is in the room. Your student comes into your classroom and begins acting evocative towards you and makes suggestive comments. 

It is very important in this situation to record and report the incident immediately. This way your supervisor is notified of what has happened and you cover your ass if any rumors begin to circulate. The next step in this situation is to make it clear with your student that any sort of relationship between the two of you outside of the student/teacher relationship is not only inappropriate and unprofessional, but also illegal. This point needs to be adamantly made, but without embarrassing or insulting the student. The teacher should follow school protocol for this situation and if necessary refer the student to the guidance counselor to discuss why this kind of attachment is unhealthy and not realistic. The teacher should not do anything to alienate the student after the situation has occurred. 

This absolutely goes with out saying but under no circumstances should the teacher engage in any sort of evocative activities suggested by the student. At NO point should a teacher engage in a sexual or romantic relationship with a student. It is illegal, unethical, and can be viewed as an abuse of power by the teacher.