UNPROFESSIONAL
CONDUCT?
Erin Naberhaus BUS309 Prof. Swinney In this case, we are analyzing whether or not Mrs. Pettit, an elementary teacher for
mentally challenged children, is fit to teach. Her private lifestyle is sexually unconventional,
which was observed at a “swingers” party by a police officer. This officer then charged her for
oral copulation, Mrs. Pettit subsequently paid her fine, and was reinstated to teach the following
year. Two years after that though, the Board of Education changed their minds. In their minds,
even though she was an exemplary teacher, her conduct of her private life shows that her actions
prove her unfit to teach and that she would somehow inject her views into her classroom life.
The Board of Education definitely violated her right to privacy, and they definitely were
not justly able to fire her. In our text it states that Mrs. Pettit worked with mentally challenged
children for over thirteen years, she had never had a complaint, her evaluations with her principal
were always positive, and she had proven herself to be a competent teacher. When faced with
this new information, the information about her sex life, it calls to reason that this is not some
new thing. She most likely has been this way for her whole marriage and maybe even ever since
she started first having sex. More than likely, she has been this way and held these views for her
whole teaching career. When the Board of Education did not know about it, she was highly
reviewed and it was proven that she excelled in her position.
By using her private sexual life as a reason to fire her not only violates her privacy, but
opens up the school to be sued. A person’s private life and work life are separate entities unless the employee wants to bring their private life into their workplace. It’s obvious that Mrs. Pettit
never brought her private life into her workplace before. It is an invasion of her privacy to act on
components of her and her personality not in play when she is in her classroom. If she had
questionable morals, these would have been detected early in her career, not after 13 years. The
Board of Education must have just been looking for an excuse to fire her and came up with that
one to appease coworkers/parents/whoever might have been pressuring them to take action.
Mrs. Pettit’s behavior was neither unprofessional nor immoral. She was completely with
her kids in the classroom. Wholly invested in their learning. She does not bring her sexuality
into her classroom because then that would be unprofessional. If she was an unprofessional
teacher, she would not have had such positive evaluations. Just because the Board of Education
and her coworkers know about her behavior now, does not mean that she has changed as a
person. Her core personality is the same no matter what other people know about her. As for the
immoral issue, everyone has their own views on what is moral and immoral. To a highly
religious person, Mrs. Pettit’s actions would be viewed as immoral, to another swinger, or even
someone who is open to anything, it would probably be considered as having no moral
implication. Swingers are swingers because they want to be, as a couple. No one gets hurt, it is
completely consensual. If we start with Mrs. Pettit’s reviews by her principal, which were all good, we can see
that she has been reviewed and commended for an excellent job. Being “fit to teach”, to me,
means that a teacher cares for her students, creates an environment conducive to learning, is
willing to help her students when they need help, is approachable, conveys her
passion/excitement for teaching is a way that the students know she loves her job, and just
generally being well liked by her kids. I am sure that Mrs. Pettit filled all of these. Her
competence was never questioned, so there was no reason after the Board of Education found out
about her other interests for them to begin to question her ability to teach.
As a teacher you are expected to have good morals inside the classroom, dress
respectably, speak well and respectably, and lead her students in a morally acceptable way. Her
obligation exists inside the classroom, and ends when she is off school property. It is just like
any other job. As an employee anywhere, you are expected to uphold the morals of the company
and be respectful and respectable. This ends once you are on your own personal time. In the case
of Mrs. Pettit, she was a very respectable teacher who performed her job well in the classroom.
Once the school day ended and she was in her own house, on her own time, she is able to do
anything she pleases. Unless the Board of Education is going to provide her a salary that would
reflect that they required her to conduct herself under their rules in every aspect of her life, then
they have no say in what she does when she is not on company time anymore. In my own life, I am sarcastic and rude. I speak my mind and tell people the truth about
things even if the truth is not what they want to hear. I am very liberal with curse words and
racial slurs. This is just how I am as a person, on my own time. I worked at a customer service
desk in a retail store for a job for about two years and even though my personality is rude, I was
the epitome of kind and nice while on the job. Our company required respectful, kind,
understanding, and nice people, so that is what I was. I would apologize for the inconvenience
while being yelled and screamed at for not having something in or not being able to accept a
return because it is past the return date, I would smile and speak very nicely to people who were
rude to me at the desk because they misunderstood a sign or had an issue that annoyed them. It
was my job. I upheld the company policy when I was on the clock and working. I even was nice
while on my way out of the store and parking lot. But believe me, once I was on the way home
on my own time, my own personality came shining back through and I was wonderfully rude
again.
What I mean with my example is that anyone with any kind of personality can be fit for a
job as long as the person in question follows the standards set forth by the company. Any
workplace has certain standards and rules for the employees to follow, and the employees are
released from this obligation once they are at the end of their workday and out of the building.
As a teacher, Mrs. Pettit followed all her standards and rules inside the classroom, I have no idea
why she would be punished for her personal life when her personal life has absolutely no impact on her classroom. For it to make sense for her to be fired, she would have to purposefully bring
her personal, private life into the classroom. Like talking about it, or something like that. Mrs.
Pettit never did anything of the sort. She was nothing but a competent teacher.
There are many behaviors that would be considered unprofessional or immoral for
teachers, but having your own private life is not one of them. It is simply unprofessional for a
teacher to curse in the classroom or talk negatively about anyone especially other teachers or
students’ parents. It is also unprofessional to wear clothes that could reveal a bit too much skin or
clothes that are too tight and leave nothing to the imagination. It would be unprofessional for a
teacher to make sexual innuendos or have any other kind of conversation with the students that
would be questioned by the parents and principal.
It is very immoral, not to mention illegal, to have any kind of romantic or sexual
relationship with a student. It is also immoral to help students cheat or simply give them the
answers. It would be unprofessional to forge grades for favorite students. It would be immoral to
use drugs or drink in the classroom, or have a romantic liaison in the classroom, even if the
students are not in there.
There are many, many, many behaviors that are terrible for teachers to engage in, but a
great teacher would never even think about involving her students in these behaviors. A great
teacher does everything she can to help her students learn and help them understand the material she puts forth for them. Mrs. Pettit sounds like she would be a great teacher, if the Board of
Education would leave her private life where it belongs, to herself only. References
Shaw, W. H. (2014). Unprofessional Conduct? In W. H. Shaw, Business Ethics: A Textbook With Cases (pp.
342-343). Mason: Cengage Learning.

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