Note that it says "Principal." It doesn't say anything about "principles."
I received this news from Ethics Hero Harris Meyer, the journalist who has been trying to preserve some semblance of integrity in his profession by reminding it what ethical investigative journalism is not, through his efforts to rebut the praise for Gaby Rodriguez, the high school student who deceived her family and classmates by pretending to be pregnant as her senior project. The news: Trevor Greene, the principal who helped devise Gaby’s unethical stunt and assisted her in lying to the rest of the school, has been named the state’s top high school principal by the Association of Washington School Principals.
He received this honor, the release says, by virtue of his organizing a system of student-teacher mentorships, and guiding the school’s effort to expand and improve its science, technology, engineering and math curriculum. The fact that he also mentored a student in a blatantly unethical exercise that was, as I wrote in my original post about Gaby’s scam,
“…misguided in every way: irresponsible, dishonest, unfair, [trivializing] teen pregnancy, and play[ing] with people’s emotions for no legitimate purpose whatsoever, while teaching the false lesson that it is justifiable to deceive others, perhaps causing them emotional distress, for narrow personal goals…”
…all for school credit, no less, apparently didn’t bother the Association one bit. And maybe it shouldn’t have. Maybe this principal who believes that lying and exploiting others for notoriety and dubious objectives is the best principal in the State of Washington. Maybe the others are even worse. But buck up, Washington; honoring a principal who approves and rewards conduct like Gaby’s might just inspire others to emulate his example.
Is there any more we need to know about why test scores nationwide show evidence of institutionalized cheating?
Ethics Alarms 
Jack,
Are you okay with my postings yes or no? Following our disagreement on here some months back (and your subsequent facebook defriending) I’ve tried numerous times to contact you in order to apologize (through several mediums) or at least get further explication, but all have gone unseen or unanswered. Moreover, while your responses to mine used to be congenial, they’ve recently become short and seemingly terse (though that may very well be my own perception).
I realize you have no desire to “ban” anyone or otherwise censor postings (which is appreciated), but I also have no interest wasting your time if that’s what I am, in fact, doing. What’s more, I apologize for the direct nature of this posting, but it seems the only means left by which I can contact you. Please let me know. Best.
-Neil
I like your postings 99.9% of the time…different perspective, atypical observations, good devil’s advocacy. Always have. I miss them went they aren’t around.
So… Is it time to just fire our entire public school system and start over? Did you hear about Arkansas’ okaying of teacher-student sex if the student is eighteen or older?
Did they really? Or did they just not make it against the law any more? In some states, it is against the law for a teacher to have sex with a student even if they are over the age of consent. It still should result in the forfeiture of the teacher’s job and credentials, however. If they no longer consider it inappropriate behavior…sigh.
To quote a line from “Titanic: The Musical”: “Oh dear Mother of God…iceberg, right ahead!” The question is, who’s the ship, society or the educational system?