One bad decision can ruin a teacher’s career

One careless choice and a teaching career can unravel, leaving students and parents to deal with the fallout

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Teachers make hundreds of decisions every single day.

Most are minor, such as deciding how many math problems to assign at the end of a lesson. But others carry much more significance. Some could even be career-ending.

Yes, you read that correctly. One wrong decision and a teacher’s professional career might come to a screeching halt.

Consider one decision that teachers make on a regular basis: what videos to show to their students. Some teachers have made really bad choices.

For example, a Toronto teacher recently showed a video of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk being assassinated to a class of Grade 5 and 6 students. The Toronto District School Board quickly removed the teacher from the school and began a full investigation.

Anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that it’s inappropriate to show videos with graphic violence to elementary-age students. This certainly shows a lack of professional judgment.

Sadly, this is far from the only time a teacher made a potentially career-ending decision. Back in 2012, a Montreal teacher showed his Grade 10 class video footage of convicted murderer Luka Magnotta stabbing and dismembering his victim. Unsurprisingly, that teacher was immediately suspended from the classroom and eventually fired.

Showing inappropriate videos is far from the only way teachers have displayed poor professional judgment. Engaging in sexual relationships with students, sending flirtatious text messages, stealing school property and making inappropriate posts on social media are all surefire ways to end a teaching career.

Clearly, professional judgment is one of the most important things teachers need to have. This includes discernment about what materials and videos to share with students, an understanding of proper boundaries between students and teachers, a strong moral compass and a healthy dose of common sense.

While we obviously can’t guarantee that all teachers have excellent professional judgment, there are practical steps we can take to increase the likelihood.

First, education faculties need to do a better job of training teachers, particularly when it comes to understanding the importance of professional boundaries. Considering that young people today have grown up with social media, we must educate prospective teachers about the perils of sharing personal details online.

Second, school administrators must make every effort to screen out candidates with questionable dispositions during the hiring process. In addition, administrators need to mentor new teachers as they start their careers. A significant part of a teacher’s professional growth plan should include learning about the many pitfalls they must avoid.

Finally, the provincial government needs to enhance the transparency of the Registry of Certified Teachers and Clinicians. While this registry includes the names and certification status of all certified Manitoba teachers, it did not publish details of disciplinary decisions before this year.

As a result, other teachers, and, more importantly, members of the public, rarely heard about the egregious errors in judgment that led to the suspension or cancellation of teaching certificates.

Fortunately, Manitoba is now following the lead of British Columbia and Ontario, where disciplinary decisions have long been published. The report on one disciplinary decision this year is now available on the provincial website, with more likely to follow. When it comes to teacher discipline, transparency is key.

All teachers must have professional judgment. Students and their parents deserve nothing less.

Michael Zwaagstra is a senior fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.