Ethical Dilemma In School Counseling

This paper will be centered on an ethical dilemma involving a 7th grade boy named John who was suicidal, and was not given the proper care by his school counselor. To solve this ethical dilemma, the ethical decision making model will be used to apply it by going through six steps. First, to get to the root of the issue in this ethical dilemma, the problem needs to be identified and to see whether this is an ethical, legal, professional, or clinical issue. Since the ethical dilemma has something to do with school counseling, the ASCA ethical standards for school counselors will be used to see which codes the school counselor did not follow. The nature and dimensions of the dilemma will also be determined along with the moral principles and professional …show more content…
After talking with John for many sessions, the school counselor assess that John was at risk of committing suicide. The school counselor did do the right thing by contacting John’s parents letting them know what was going on but instead of helping John any further; the counselor printed a resource list for John’s parents that included community mental health counselors. After reviewing this dilemma, the problem that is presented was that the school counselor failed to continue to exercise the duty to protect John even though the counselor did assessed that he was at risk of suicide. What is also part of the problem is that the school counselor did not take the proper precautions by helping John any further such as coming up with an intervention plan on how to prevent him from committing suicide. Corey, Corey, Corey, & Callanan (2015) mentioned in the text that if a counselor determines that a client is at risk of suicide, then they should do everything as a professional to take the right steps to help that person and prevent them from harming themselves as well. The text also mentions that when a counselor assess the client is at risk of suicide, then they should make sure that their keeping a close eye on them since anything can go …show more content…
If John did not get the help that he properly needed from the school counselor, the counselor is held liable for whatever happens to him. This dilemma would be viewed as an ethical problem because the school counselor did not continue to work with John and referred him to other mental health counselors instead without providing proper care. It will also be a legal problem because if John was to commit suicide, then chances are a malpractice claim given to them since they have the legal duty to protect him. Not only the school counselor will be held liable for John being at risk of suicide, the problem is also related to the school which is also held liable given that maybe other staff members did not do enough to attend to John when he needed the proper care even though there was a teacher of his to rely