Employees occasionally break the rules on the job. This behavior is called “work place deviance behaviors”. In the workplace when employees break rules on purpose this can affect the organization and its members negatively. Workplace deviance is classified into two categories-organizational deviance and deviance between people. On the hand in schools, teacher’s deviant behavior by breaking rules by breaking rules can affect the school and students in a negative way. The deviant behaviors of teachers can have serious consequences.
These consequences can impact the welfare of others in the school setting that had nothing to do with the educator’s deviant behavior. In some cases it can cause a Domino effect to occur (one issue compounds on another issue, etc) According to Galperin &Burke (2006) teachers putting their reputation on the line means you can trust them and you can depend on them and you can depend on them doing the right thing. But when teachers behave negatively, it destroys all trust and belief in the person.
The following information is a case of teacher’s deviant behaviors in a school setting, the impact of their behavior and others and the consequences of their devious acts. It is sad that Joe Paterno, head football coach at Penn State University failed to uncover the sexual acts against 10 boys by his assistant Jerry Sandusky for 15 years. After thorough investigations by the authorities 48 criminal charges were filed against the suspects Joe Paterno and Sandusky.
This incident is a typical example of deviant behavior confirmed by a psychologist -Alycia Chambers who was invited by Penn State University to discuss the case. According to news reports students rioted for many days destroying cars and property. Another problem that occurred was that the NCAA levied a fine of $60 million dollars against Penn State University. Some Penalties against the University were:
Five year probation, a four year post season ban, dismissal of all wins from 1998-2011 (which constitutes 112 wins), and the loss of 40 scholarships from 013-2017. These penalties will be a problem for Penn State University and its football team for many years. As a result of this unfortunate occurrence at Penn State University, many other colleges across the nation have been affected too. Many of these colleges changed their rules to avoid similar problems of sex abuse scandals. In another case, Bishop Eddie Long. an Atlanta, Georgia Bishop of a prominent mega church of over 25,000 members was accused in a sexual scandal.
According to the Huffington Post Newspaper, September 15, 2010 issue, Bishop Long is being accused of seducing 2 young men into sexual acts. These men’s lawyer, Bernstein, claimed Bishop Long abused his spiritual authority to seduce his clients with cars, money, clothes, jewelry, international trips and access to celebrities. Also, this case is considered a pedophile incident. If Bishop Long is found guilty of the charges, he stands to spend many years in prison. Thirdly, the Catholic Church has a long history of sex abuse scandal where the priests molest young boys in so many incidents.
The former Pope Benedict and Pope Francis with all his Bishops have apologized to the entire world about this sad behavior. Although many of the deviant acts may seem negative, there are positive ones as well. According to Galperin (2002), deviance may have positive and negative effects. The positive ones are called “constructive deviance” while the negative effects are called “destructive deviance”. Galperin described constructive deviance as voluntary behavior that is contrary to the rules of any organization.
On the positive side of deviant behavior is called “constructive deviance”. This consists of doing random acts of kindness such as raking some ones’ yard free of charge , helping an elderly person pump her or his gas or giving someone who is homeless a bag of groceries ; grab a couple of dozen sweets or bagels for coworkers; help someone load groceries into his car; giving homeless person a temporary place to stay; leave a hefty tip for friendly service at your favorite restaurant; donate unused books to any local library and leave change in a person’s parking meter.
By doing these things without looking for a payback is participating in “constructive behavior”. The impact and consequences are more favorable. Doing more random acts of kindness in school settings are helping students with homework issues in an open session, assisting parents with economic issues, assisting parents to get children to school on time and by checking on student’s safety in and around the school grounds. Teachers doing these things without looking for a reward or pay back are participating in “constructive behavior”. Conclusion
Teachers must build trust among students and exemplify professional decorum at all times. Students are not your equal. You are dealing with the ratio of an adult to a child. Students look up to teachers for positive guidance. Teachers are leaders in the school and community. Despicable leadership and deviant behavior causes an eruption to the person’s leadership style and derails and or demoralize the positives between the students and the teacher’s relationship. Students as well as their parents should feel they can attend school in a safe environment away from predators.
