School Counseling Reflective Report

Introduction Ethics and law are woven throughout the school fabric. Young people are seen as a vulnerable group in society that must be nurtured and protected as they learn and grow. In a school setting, there are many laws and standards set before teachers, administration, and counselors to protect not only the students, but also to protect the staff. There are not many gray areas or areas left to subjectivity. There is one area that is gray, which is the main reason I chose to focus and expand on this topic. It is not especially seen until the middle or high school levels, but sexual activity is among the few subjective areas of school counseling when it pertains to law and ethical standards. The theme of sexual activity also involves

I went to a high school in San Francisco and sexual activity was very much standard on campus. My high school handed out condoms and other contraceptives on a weekly basis for any student who wanted to obtain them and every student went through a sex education unit in health class. I had many friends who became pregnant during high school. Some of these friends chose abortion and some of these friends chose to deliver their baby. I was interested to learn what the role of a counselor is or should be in this theme for a few reasons. In my high school experience, I was not aware of the involvement of school counselors in my friend’s pregnancies. To my knowledge, my friends who received abortions obtained them without their parent’s knowledge. I was also interested in researching this theme because if I were a parent and school staff were aware that my child was sexually active, I would want to know as well. For these reasons, I wanted to consider the legal and ethical implications of having sexually active students and what role a school counselor plays in these types of scenarios. The purpose of this study is to move the gray area away from this theme and to find the concrete standards of confidentiality, privacy rights, and discrimination pertaining to sexually active students on campus. Once the standards are defined, counselors can adhere to

In the case of Chipman v. Grant County School District (GCSD) (1998), both girls were granted induction into the National Honors Society. The judge wrote in their preliminary ruling, “although the defendants argue that they are not basing their decision on pregnancy, but rather on non-marital sexual relations, the disparate impact on young women such as the plaintiffs is apparent” (Morgan, 1999, p. 122). It was affirmed as a violation of Title IX as, “the GCHS committee made no attempt to ascertain the sexual history of all NHS candidates, relying only on the visual evidence of Chasity and Somer 's pregnancies (Morgan, 1999, p. 122-123). This court ruling highlights the significance and importance of Title IX and reminds school counselors to advocate for the success of all students. This is a national law and is applicable in federally funded schools across the United States of America, therefore it is extremely important for counselors to