Situation 1
First of all, it should be mentioned, that it was extremely unethical on the part of the teacher to take part in the activities which could disgrace him/her. Moreover, it was extremely unwise to presume that none of the students would ever find the pictures in the Web. Secondly, it was no less unethical on the part of the student to report on the teacher and to divulge this information to other students and teachers. It would have been better if he/she told the teacher that he/she knew about the pictures, thus preventing the teacher from unpleasant consequences.
The teacher is likely to be fired as soon as this information gets into the hands of the administration. The main reason for this is the incompetent behavior of the teacher and this reason is sufficient enough to get fired. As an option, the teacher may be asked to quit, though this will not change the essence much. This story will have a negative impact on the teacher’s further career, because this dismissal will be recorded in the teacher’s resume and the future employee will necessarily enquire about this teacher’s previous work.
This situation may have another outcome if those are old pictures which have been taken before the teacher got this job. He/she will still be fired with the main reason being that the students are aware of the pictures and it would be hard for the teacher to handle the shame and manage the class as if nothing has happened. None of the outcomes is beneficial for the teacher, but the latter leaves him/her the chance to get a similar job in future.
Situation 2
This situation presents an ethical dilemma for the school administration, because, on the one hand, it will be impossible to prohibit the freedom of speech and making the student take off the T-shirt with the abusive words will cause public resentment, especially if the number of students who commented on the situation positively was prevailing. On the other hand, ignoring the situation and not taking any measures would mean that the administration is discriminative and, moreover, encourages discrimination among the students.
The factors to be considered in making the decision are behavioral factors, such as personality, personal values, potential for the decision being incorrect, the level of risk, etc, as well as legal ones, and a number of others. In this situation, all these factors should be taken into consideration. The most important for the education professionals is to take a neutral position in this situation and evaluate all the possible outcomes of the problem before making a decision. This student is likely to be asked to go home and change clothes; he/she will be punished for the teachers’ not to send the whole school to change the next day.
It would be better for the educational professionals to act in this situation as soon as possible because, though the news will spread over the school rather quickly, the number of students who have seen the one in the abusive T-shirt should be limited. In order to prevent the situation from repeating, somebody from the school’s personnel will have to check the students’ clothes for several days after the incident. The students will have to be warned that the repetition of the incident will involve much more serious consequences that in case with the student who did it first.