Do teachers have a moral obligation to protect students

[smelltheglove]

Even in that case the teacher is morally responsible for his/her students. Western culture(s) love a hero and stigmatize cowardice. I think Shakespeare's line from Julius Caesar illustrates society's opinion on the matter fairly well: "Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once."

professional bodyguards make better than 40k a year, im sure

[Kasierith]

professional bodyguards make better than 40k a year, im sure

In general their pay is extremely variable depending on just how much someone wants protection, and how much they think a bodyguard might be bribed away. If you're an actor who wants paparazzi kept away, 40k sounds fine.... but if you're say, a firewall designer for a Vegas casino, that's a bit higher up the chain of risk.

[Pull My Finger]

I don't think it's possible to reglementize extreme situations like those in a legally binding way.

[Deleted]

From the experience I've had with teachers, hell no.

[Anjerith]

If my son(s) were shot in a classroom and the teacher was there and didn't do *everything* in their power to protect the children they have responsibility for during school hours - I would kill that teacher.


Sorry, teachers these days have been happily dodging social responsibility for the children they "teach" as often as they can. This would be the only area I draw the line on the lazy horseshit that is the public school system.

[Deleted]

would be completely retarded to jump infront of the bullet would only kill him there biggest advantage to overpower the assailent who i believe would be a child. If he gets him killed for the first child that they shoot at he cant wait for his time and overpower them if he is given an oppertunity.

[Seranthor]

As the title says - do you believe teachers have a moral obligation to protect students from harm?

As a teacher right now, I would protect my students at all costs. The question is - does society expect this from me? Obviously they can't have a legal obligation, but if we were to ever have a massacre where the teacher hid behind their desk while his or her students were killed, would that teacher be forgiven?

Something I've been pondering, would love to hear some feedback.

Do you have a moral obligation, No; Most GOOD teachers go out of their way to protect their students. Does that mean you need to take a bullet for them? No; Do I know teachers that would take a bullet for their students, Yes. There were several in fact in the recent school shooting that did sacrifice themselves to protect their students.

[Deleted]

I don't believe in moral obligations.

[Lora]

Moral yes legal no.

[Deleted]

If my son(s) were shot in a classroom and the teacher was there and didn't do *everything* in their power to protect the children they have responsibility for during school hours - I would kill that teacher.


Sorry, teachers these days have been happily dodging social responsibility for the children they "teach" as often as they can. This would be the only area I draw the line on the lazy horseshit that is the public school system.

I find this wholly intriguing considering it's most often parents who try to dodge responsibilities and push it onto teachers.

[Morsker]

Hell no to teachers having all these ridiculous "moral obligations". Teachers should do their jobs and teach the students, report evidence of learning disabilities, abuse, and things like that. It is a job, and we want qualified people to do the job. So many teachers are incompetent, lazy, or both. Adding silly moral obligations is just turning teaching into a religious devotion instead of a job, letting that incompetent teacher feel that he is still a good person as long as his "heart is in the right place". No.

[Lootem]

Take it a step higher. Yes, the teacher SHOULD protect the class. But without proper training. They would cause more harm than good. But what about the school itself? Why aren't schools required to have some type of true "security" force from 8-4 or something similar?

Society would blame a teacher for not defending a student. But no one would blame the school for not hiring a security guard.

If a child's safety is THAT important, than the school needs to realize that a bunch of untrained school teachers and janitors is NOT a proper defense.

And yes, I have children. They have been taught what to do and how to act in this scenario, because after the columbine incident, years ago, it clearly showed how ill prepared any school is to defend our children. And we practice these skills every month. Just like we practice fire drills and other emergency preparedness scenario's.

[Deleted]

I guess next question is "should the football coach defend his players with his own life no matter the cost?" Should the bus driver do it? Should the guy working at mcdonalds do it? you know what I mean.

No, they are not police, they are not army, they are teachers. To assume a civilian should try to take on a maniac for whatever reason would be stretching any moral high ground, which is why i quoted the above. Where would it stop? does the bus driver take on a loony for the passengers? does the doctor step in if shit goes down in a hospital? No. You wouldnt expect them to.

While i would expect a teacher to attempt to either hide or run with as many students as possible, i would never think nor more importantly blame them if they did not take a bullet and ran for the hills, they are not trained fighters, there life is not worth less then the students just because they signed up one day to be an educator and are expected by (some of) society to be the protector.

[smelltheglove]

In general their pay is extremely variable depending on just how much someone wants protection, and how much they think a bodyguard might be bribed away. If you're an actor who wants paparazzi kept away, 40k sounds fine.... but if you're say, a firewall designer for a Vegas casino, that's a bit higher up the chain of risk.

well, if a person might be called upon to lay down one's life... warrants at the least a hefty life insurance policy covered by the employer i'd think. my point is we expect teachers to teach, babysit, more and more they are expected to provide what parents should be providing (ie moral fabric and character developement, in line with every parent's individual ideals of course), and now many are saying they should be an action hero or sacrificial lamb at the same time.

meanwhile we are trying to pay them less, give them less job security, take away benefits, etc.

we have no right to expect teachers to sacrifice everything for our children while at less and less cost or inconvenience to ourselves. but many will, because somehow many teachers are far better than we deserve by our actions as a society

[Deleted]

no.

no more or less than anyone else.

[starkey]

teachers are there too teach not take down armed assailants if the school has a issue with violent students then its upto the school board to take care of that, i dont think they do judo classes at teachers training colleges.

[Kasierith]

Take it a step higher. Yes, the teacher SHOULD protect the class. But without proper training. They would cause more harm than good. But what about the school itself? Why aren't schools required to have some type of true "security" force from 8-4 or something similar?

Society would blame a teacher for not defending a student. But no one would blame the school for not hiring a security guard.

If a child's safety is THAT important, than the school needs to realize that a bunch of untrained school teachers and janitors is NOT a proper defense.

And yes, I have children. They have been taught what to do and how to act in this scenario, because after the columbine incident, years ago, it clearly showed how ill prepared any school is to defend our children. And we practice these skills every month. Just like we practice fire drills and other emergency preparedness scenario's.

So who's going to pay for the security details to be attached? Keep in mind as well, that you'll have to do expansions to the building itself for rooms and such, and seeing as a security officer does nothing if he's the first one shot (which would turn into the norm), you would probably need 2+ security officers depending on the size of the school. Then there's a problem where, if the officers have guns, you run a risk of a student or someone else taking the gun from a security officer and bypassing the regulations on getting firearms.

[kaamila]

protect as in lock doors, showing them where to run/hide as i barricade doors then ya. jumping in front of bullets, no. these teachers are human beings and believe it or not the most common response in that type of situation, is flight, not fight. so to ask a normal person to risk their lives for the lives of students, is unfair.

[CrusaderNerò87]

If my son(s) were shot in a classroom and the teacher was there and didn't do *everything* in their power to protect the children they have responsibility for during school hours - I would kill that teacher.


Sorry, teachers these days have been happily dodging social responsibility for the children they "teach" as often as they can. This would be the only area I draw the line on the lazy horseshit that is the public school system.

Nice way to toss every teacher into the "you are useless and cant do anything" area. What is your job? I am sure there are bad ones there, and im sure there are mostly good ones. Would you be happy if I had a experience with someone in your line of work that is bad, then go around yelling bad stuff about every person doing that kind of job?

I dont deny that there aint bad teachers out there - but most of them are good ones and they do a good job.

It's also a matter of how you look at "did the teacher do whatever he/she could?"

Should he have saved more kids? Should he have ran straight on the shooter trying to stop him? Should he carry a gun 24/7 ready to kill attackers? What if he saved five kids, but not yours?

Teachers in the modern western world is expected to do a ton of work. Atleast in my country, it's almost expected from them to help them with almost everything, they take more and more the roles parents have. Parents at the same time blame the schools for pretty much everything, and they blame only the school for whatever bad stuff is with theyre kids.

I have experience many times how parents only listen to theyre kids on how it is on school. they dont give a rats ass about what the teachers says or how theyre own child behaves. there used to be a trust between teacher/parents, but it's opposite now. its not a family/parent/kid issue(that has nothing to do with school), its only the schools fault.


I know a great deal about this, but sadly my native language is not english so right now I find it hard to explain myself 100% correct so I wont go into this further.. :/

[arcticsnow]

I think there is a moral obligation for anyone to try and protect any child, not just teachers.