A Discussant on the Offensive

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Type: Article

Topics: Ethics, School Administrator Magazine

August 01, 2025

Appears in August 2025: School Administrator

Ethical Educator

Scenario: The school district鈥檚 head of instruction runs an after-school adult writers鈥� group with monthly meetings in the high school media center, open to any district employee. Though the group鈥檚 chair established a no-politics rule years ago, one member has written a work of historical fiction about the Civil War that makes clear he holds pro-Confederacy, racist and white-supremacist views that he often vocalizes at the meetings. Consequently, several new and longtime members have stopped attending. The member seems oblivious to the fact his remarks are offensive to others. The group鈥檚 chair suspects that talking to this member about his comments will have no effect. What should the chair do?

sketch of white man holding up parchment saying

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The Ethical Educator panel consists of

Sheldon H. Berman, author of Implementing Social-Emotional Learning: Insights from School Districts鈥� Successes and Setbacks.
Susan Enfield, executive director, University of Washington鈥檚 Center for Educational Leadership, Seattle, Wash.
Arthur Schwartz, president, ; and
Maria G. Ott, Irving R. and Virginia A. Melbo chair in education administration, University of Southern California.

Each month, School Administrator draws on actual circumstances to raise an ethical decision-making dilemma in K-12 education. Our distinguished panelists provide their own resolutions to each dilemma.

Do you have a suggestion for a dilemma to be considered?
Send it to: magazine@aasa.org

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