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Georgia Professional Standards Commission Meeting
September 2016
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The Georgia Professional Standards Commission (PSC) held its regular monthly meeting on Thursday, September 8, 2016. The PSC is charged with establishing educator certification rules and sanctioning educator certificates when there is probable cause that one or more of the eleven standards of the Code of Ethics for Georgia Educators (COE) has been violated.
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Ethics Cases
Standard 2: Conduct with Students
Three particular Standard 2 topics were discussed at length: grooming, unprofessional language with students, and failure to adequately supervise/protect students.
An educator grooms a child when he/she takes affirmative steps to build trust with the student in order to later engage in inappropriate conduct with that student. Evidence of grooming includes text and/or social media messages between the educator and the student, a particular closeness between the two (in one case, the PSC noted that the educator always ate lunch with the student she was grooming), singling the student out in a favorable way, and handwritten notes between the educator and the student. Three grooming cases were discussed at this meeting, but the Commission did not consistently issue the same punishment. One educator received a 30-day suspension of his certificate, another's certificate was suspended for 60 days, while yet another educator's certificate was suspended for one year.
Several cases were discussed involving unprofessional language (profanity, racial/ethnic slurs) with students. In one case, the PSC voted to investigate a complaint alleging that an educator called a student a derogatory name. The complaint also alleged that the educator used racial slurs towards the student. In a similar case, the PSC issued a 30-day suspension of an educator's license for using inappropriate language towards students.
Failure to adequately maintain student supervision can be detrimental to an educator's certificate. In one particular case, an educator was told to keep Student A away from Student B because "A" sexually harassed "B." While on a field trip, "A" sexually assaulted "B." Members of the PSC viewed this as a serious lapse in judgment, especially since the educator had been given advanced notice that the two students should remain separated. After finding probable cause that Standard 2 was violated, the PSC voted to suspend the educator's certificate for one year.
Standard 3: Drugs or Alcohol
An educator who reported to school under the influence of marijuana received a one-year suspension of her certificate. Members of the PSC were unpersuaded by the educator's assertion that she was using marijuana for a medical issue.
Standard 4: Honesty
A pre-service educator was reprimanded by the PSC for submitting an edTPA portfolio to Pearson with work product that was not his own. This case serves as a good reminder to educators that cheating or plagiarizing on assignments submitted as part of a program to obtain a license, endorsement, or degree can result in a sanction from the PSC.
Standard 8: Abandonment of Contract
Two contract issues were discussed at this meeting of the PSC: abandonment when liquidated damages have been paid and abandonment of an at-will employment agreement.
In the first case, the educator paid a liquidated damages provision in the contract when she breached it. A liquidated damages provision is one in which the parties to the contract (here, the school system and the teacher) agree, at the time of signing the contract, what the monetary damages for breach will be. Since the educator paid the liquidated damages, the PSC held that the district was made whole. Therefore, the PSC issued a finding of no probable cause (NPC).
In another contract case, the PSC applied Standard 8 to an at-will employment agreement. This was a written agreement that specifically stated that the educator was an at-will employee. By its very definition, "at-will" means that there is no contractual obligation; therefore, Standard 8 cannot be violated. As such, a finding of NPC was entered.
As a side note, the PSC recently assembled a task force to provide guidance on the future of Standard 8. The work of the task force will come to an end soon, so the PSC will likely provide clarity on some of these convoluted abandonment of contract issues.
Standard 10: Professionalism
The PSC voted to revoke the certificate of an educator who brought a loaded revolver into a classroom.
The Commission expects educators to maintain professional behavior as part of their coaching duties. A 30-day suspension was issued to a coach for unprofessional conduct while on the soccer field. The PSC found probable cause to believe that the educator yelled at a referee, was thrown out of the game, and returned to the field later during the game to continue to yell at the referee.
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Certification Updates
The PSC will soon begin administering surveys to principals and first-year teachers across the state to address the effectiveness of the teacher's licensing institution. The surveys will apply to traditional and non-traditional pathways to certification, such as universities, the TAPP program, and Teach for America. Coupled with data from the GACE and the TAPS score from TKES, these surveys are an effort to improve educator preparation programs.
The PSC approved some minor changes in the autism endorsement rule and the certification renewal rule. The autism endorsement change was a wording change in the introductory language. In the renewal rule, the PSC approved local school systems to use PLU's if they wish to do so. This change does not require local school systems to use PLU's.
The next PSC meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 13.
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