Prior to beginning work on this discussion, please review the following websites, and read the following required articles:

Ethical Decision Making

The Difference Between Deductive and Inductive Reasoning

• ASCA ethical standards for school counselors

To Tell or Not to Tell: The Fine Line Between Minors’ Privacy and Others’ Right to Know

• Play the expert in the following scenario and apply ethical decision-making to your rationale and actions. Be mindful of section F in the ASCA ethical standards for school counselors (p. 8):

When faced with an ethical dilemma, school counselors and school counseling program directors/supervisors use an ethical decision-making model such as Solutions to Ethical Problems in Schools (STEPS) (Stone, 2001):

•  Define the problem emotionally and intellectually

Apply the ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors and the law

Consider the students’ chronological and developmental levels

• Consider the setting, parental rights and minors’ rights

Apply the ethical principles of beneficence, autonomy, nonmaleficence, loyalty and justice

Determine potential courses of action and their consequences

Evaluate the selected action

Consult

Implement the course of action

You are a school counselor at a rural high school. You have been counseling a student, and he confided in you that one of his friends has recently engaged in sexual relations with one of the teacher’s daughters. (She is a friend of yours.) He does not divulge the name of the other student and refuses to talk any further about the issue.

Address the following:

What ethical considerations must be considered in this situation?

1. How does confidentiality affect your considerations and actions?
2. What options might you have to address the situation?
3. Ethically, since this is hearsay, are you legally obligated to address?
4. Using appropriate citations and references, explain how the empirical research, theoretical models, and ethical standards presented in the assigned resources suggest the importance of applying ethical decision-making strategies to scenarios such as these.