Affiliations

Crossing Professional Boundaries

Henry Contant, SCSBC Executive Director

November 2008

It may start off innocently enough: driving home a high school student who is your regular baby-sitter, celebrating at Tim Horton's after one of your students was awarded a major scholarship, sending an encouraging personal email to a student who did well on a major assignment, massaging the legs of one of the cross-country team athletes you coach before a major meet, or accepting an invitation to be a student's friend on their Facebook account. Sadly, in some cases the teacher-student relationship doesn't stop there. Many discipline hearings held by the BC College of Teachers (BCCT) regarding professional misconduct or conduct unbecoming of a teacher show inappropriate relationships often began innocently in similar manners to those just described.

Increasingly, teachers in our Christian, other independent, and public schools are discovering that they lack clarity and understanding with regards to maintaining professional boundaries with their students. Often, Christian teachers face a unique dilemma. On the one hand they are encouraged to view the whole child, take a personal interest in each student, and build a relationship with each of their students. Yet, in doing so, almost any teacher can fall victim to a lack of understanding of professional boundaries and, inadvertently, cross the line. This can translate into teachers making serious mistakes, which in some cases are career-threatening or even career-ending. 

The BCCT has recently released a DVD entitled Keeping You and Your Students Safe: Protecting the Boundaries of the Professional Relationship. This video was produced to raise awareness about the vulnerabilities and circumstances that might cultivate an environment where boundary violations could more easily occur. The purpose of the video is to increase understanding of the appropriate parameters of the teacher-student relationship in order to prevent violations from occurring. The BCCT believes that some of these transgressions can be prevented through better training and understanding about the boundaries of the professional relationship.1 The SCSBC is using this video at its fall regional principal meetings to highlight the topic and create a greater awareness of this issue among our school principals and, by extension, their teaching and support staff.

"What makes the issue of professional boundaries an important and dangerous one for teachers is the fact that teachers are responsible for recognizing in themselves whether they are at risk of crossing boundaries and, if they are, subsequently addressing this issue. Further, teachers have a responsibility to address this issue when they witness a colleague who may be crossing boundaries. Administrators and colleagues need to recognize danger signals in other teachers' interactions and intervene. In serious situations, reporting suspicion of child abuse may be required." 2

The professional relationship between an educator and student is characterized by a fiduciary relationship and an ethos of care. The Supreme Court of Canada defines the essence of a fiduciary relationship as "one party exercises power on behalf of another and pledges him or herself to act in the best interests of the other." 3 An ethos of care "obliges professionals to place clients' (students') interests first. All the boundaries that exist in a professional-client relationship exist to protect this core understanding." 4

Educators are seen as being in a position of power. Teachers have elevated status and expert knowledge, so students have certain expectations of them. Students, on the other hand, need guidance and support and relinquish control in the teacher-student relationship. This imbalance of power may contribute to teachers violating the professional boundary unknowingly.

The term ‘professional boundaries' is not easily defined. When asked how they understood the term, teachers' responses showed that professional boundaries means different things to different people. Some common responses were:

Violation of the position of trust.

Abuse of power in a teacher's relationship with a child.

Teachers using their relationship to meet their own needs instead of the needs of their students. 5

Unacceptable Behaviours

In general, activities that take a teacher beyond the expectations set by the school could easily qualify as professional boundary violations. These include:

  • Becoming too personally involved with students - friend, confidante, surrogate parent.
  • Seeing or meeting students in private or non-school settings.
  • Writing or exchanging notes, letters, emails, or text messages.
  • Serving as a confidante with regard to a student's decision about his/her personal issues.
  • Hugging or touching students.
  • Giving gifts or money to students.
  • Inviting students to one's home or cottage.
  • Having students stay overnight in one's home/cottage.
  • Driving individual students to or from school.
  • Giving one student undue attention.
  • Being alone with a student with the exception of an emergency situation.
  • Sharing your personal problems with students.
  • Sharing personal information about a student with a third party. 6

What Places Teachers at the Highest Risk?

The research on breech of professional boundaries suggests two common reasons. They are:

Insufficient training: Teachers insufficiently trained in their roles can become too personally involved with students. This can lead to actual or alleged sexual misconduct.

Ignorance of the law: There is no excuse for being ignorant of the law! Teachers need to be informed about legal liability issues and the standards of the BC College of Teachers. 7

Protective Strategies

The best way for teachers to protect themselves and their students is to follow that old adage "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Teachers must be ever vigilant of situations that may place them in vulnerable positions.

Ways educators can protect themselves from allegations of professional misconduct include the following:

  • Learn about the law and your liability as a teacher/employee working with children and teenagers.
  • Maintain a professional barrier between yourself and students.
  • Keep your classroom or office door open when you are with a student.
  • Do not flirt with students.
  • Do not discuss your detailed personal life with students.
  • When a student indicates that the law has been, is being, or will be broken, you are responsible for notifying the authorities.
  • Do not transport students unless appropriate documentation has been completed.
  • Never leave students unsupervised when you are responsible for them.
  • Compliment or commend students without hugging or touching them. Touch is often misinterpreted by recipients or observers.
  • Report any reasonable suspicion of child abuse to proper authorities.
  • If, with students, you attend activities that are not school related, clearly communicate your responsibility to parents/guardians and students.
  • If you are responsible for supervising or planning a student activity after school hours, assume responsibility for students from the time they arrive on campus to the time they depart campus.
  • Do not call, write, email, or text message students regarding personal matters.
  • Do not make subjective, suggestive, or derogatory comments or divulge confidential information about students.
  • Consider the effect of your comments, emails, text messages and notes being taken out of context and the potential for them to be misinterpreted.
  • Clarify procedures with your principal regarding any potentially threatening situations.
  • Let students know when they are overstepping your personal boundaries.
  • Seek input from colleagues or other professionals if unsure of the appropriateness of your actions and plans.
  • Know the law, the BCCT Code of Ethics, local school board policies, and school rules and follow them. 8

 

Given the nature of our increasingly diverse and litigious society and school community, teachers need to exercise wise prudence and discretion with their students. A hallmark of our Christian schools has always been a caring school environment. Teachers are hired, not only for their professional competence as educators, but also for their ability to relate to students, to be positive role models for them, and for their capacity to share their faith commitment with students. I hope all these reasons for hiring teachers never change.

Yet, remember... a caring professional relationship always helps a student to learn and grow. But this relationship has boundaries of time, place, purpose and activity. 9

 

  1. Keeping You and Your Students Safe: Protecting the Boundaries of the Professional Relationship. (BCCT Video, 2007)
  2. Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA), Newsletter - Spring 2007
  3. Supreme Court of Canada (Norberg vs. Wynrib 1992)
  4. At Personal Risk by Marilyn R. Peterson
  5. Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) Website
  6. OECTA Newsletter-Spring 2007
  7. ibid
  8. Excerpts from ETFO & Boca Raton High's 2007-08 staff handbook
  9. Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO)

Henry Contant (contant@twu.ca ) is the Executive Director of SCSBC.

 

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