A nine-member Alaska commission is proposing to revise parts of the statewide educator code of ethics, including broadening the definition of sexual misconduct and adding language forbidding the discrimination of students or educators based on their gender identification.
Jim Seitz, executive director of the Alaska State Professional Teaching Practices Commission, said Tuesday that the commission has not revised the ethics code in 16 years. The commission, created by the state Legislature in 1966, is charged with imposing sanctions against the certificates of educators who engage in unethical conduct, using the code of ethics as its main guide, Seitz said.
Seitz said that within the past three or so years, the commission has come across "a couple" of sexual misconduct cases and felt that the code of ethics "wasn't quite as clear or wasn't quite as strong" as it should be. He declined to name the specific cases.
"It has been a concern. Not a huge concern, but a concern," Seitz said. "When you're dealing with sexual misconduct type situations, one instance is too many. It really needed to be addressed and looked at."
The current code of ethics says an educator may not physically abuse or engage in sexual conduct with a student, but does not say if this applies to a student who has graduated. Under the proposed change, the code of ethics would be revised to say that there can be no physical abuse or sexual conduct with students "including up to one year after the former student has graduated."
The proposed changes would also more explicitly explain what includes inappropriate sexual conduct between an educator and a student, by broadening the definition of sexual conduct to include "flirtatious or sexually related comments," "sexual kidding or teasing," "sexual innuendos or comments with double entendre" and more. It would also say sexual conduct is not limited to just the actions mentioned in the code.
"This is an example of strengthening and making things clearer," Seitz said.
Seitz said the commission's decision to propose several changes to the code of ethics primarily originated as an effort to strengthen the wording about sexual misconduct. He described the other changes proposed by the commission as more "secondary."
"If you're going to make changes, you're going to look at everything," said Seitz, the commission's only full-time employee. He said the process to change the code of ethics included many steps, and "we wanted to get the most bang for our buck, so to speak, and propose all these changes at one time."
The nine-member commission is made up of five teachers, one principal, one superintendent, one representative of higher education and one person from the state education department. The code of ethics governs "all members of the teaching profession," according to the document. A proposed change would also specify that it governs student teachers as well. Seitz said the commission does not have jurisdiction over teacher aides, school administrative assistants, bus drivers and sport coaches, unless they also happen to have a teacher certificate.
Seitz said the commission has talked about revisions to the code of ethics for more than a year.
He said the proposal to add "gender identification" as a protected class did not stem from any complaints brought to the commission. (A person's gender identity is the gender the person identifies with, which may or may not align with their biological sex).
The Catholic Anchor published an article about this part of the proposal last week.
Under the commission's proposed changes, an educator may not harass, discriminate against or grant a discriminatory advantage to students based on their gender identity. An educator can also not discriminate against another educator based on their gender identity. Gender identity is added to a list of "protected classes" that includes race, sex, national origin, marital status, political beliefs, religious beliefs, family, cultural background and more.
"As educators we believe that all children should receive an adequate and fair education and that's the sense with which this is proposed," Seitz said.
"It's not making any comments or thoughts about these restroom issues or locker room issues and so forth," he said. "We're just trying to say that all students should be educated fairly and just because of gender identity, someone shouldn't receive less of an education than someone else. We're talking about academics in the classroom."
Seitz said the commission has had "very, very few" cases related to any type of discrimination. According to the commission's latest annual report, for fiscal year 2016, the commission had 54 cases and imposed sanctions in 20. Four of those were for sexual misconduct with students and the most, eight, were for professional misconduct, followed by seven sanctions for contract violations.
Seitz said breach of contract is the most common violation that the commission deals with. The commission's annual report makes no mention of sanctions imposed because of discrimination.
According to Seitz, nothing specific prompted the commission to propose adding gender identification to the code of ethics, but he did note that gender identification has come up in "several different venues," and that the Municipality of Anchorage had a law forbidding discrimination based on gender identity.
In 2015, the Anchorage Assembly passed a civil rights ordinance making it illegal in the city to discriminate over sexual orientation or gender identity. The Juneau Assembly approved a nondiscrimination ordinance in August that included sexual orientation and gender identity, reported the Juneau Empire.
Seitz said educators must follow the statewide code of ethics as well as policies set by their individual employers. He said he did not know how many school districts had already included sexual identity in their nondiscrimination policies.
According to school district officials at the state's five largest school districts, only the Fairbanks North Star Borough and Juneau School District include gender identity in their nondiscrimination policies. The Anchorage School District does not specifically reference gender identity as a "protected class," but the nondiscrimination policy includes a catch-all provision covering discrimination on the basis of "other human differences" not otherwise listed, said a statement from Matthew Teaford, executive director of compliance with ASD. The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District's nondiscrimination policy does not specifically mention gender identity, and it has yet to be raised as an issue, said district spokeswoman Catherine Esary. The Kenai Borough School District's nondiscrimination policy also does not include gender identity currently but the conversation has been broached, said district spokeswoman Pegge Erkeneff.
Seitz said the commission had received about two dozen comments by Tuesday about the proposed changes to the educator code of ethics.
Alaskans have until 4:30 p.m. Thursday to submit their public comments in writing to the commission. People can submit comments by mail to the commission office at 1016 W. Sixth Ave., Suite 302, Anchorage 99501; by fax to 907-269-5070; or by email to Jim.Seitz@alaska.gov.
The commission is expected to vote on the proposed changes at its January meeting, Seitz said. View the proposed changes at education.alaska.gov/ptpc.