Abstract:

This paper evaluates an ethical school counseling dilemma where a counselor is ultimately faced with a student’s disclosure of suicidal intentions. The setting takes place in a public high school where Lakia, a counselor decides to begin a “relationship skills” group. Lakia post advertisements drawing interest from current students through the schools counseling office. She advertised with little information regarding the mission or purpose of the group. Lakia did not request information from students interested in the group such as their interest to participate, the nature of their past and current problems or previous experiences with other groups. The first meeting began with a total of nine students heavily skewed in the female gender with only two male participants. During the opening of the first meeting, one of the male participants named Robert self discloses his violent past and that he often experiences anger issues predominantly toward women. During a break, five of the female participants decide to exclude themselves from the group. Robert then proceeds to become emotional and unveils his intentions to commit suicide when he arrives home afterschool. This paper will evaluate this ethical dilemma using the American Counseling Association’s (ACA) Decision Model. Evaluation will include discussions identifying the problem, applying the American School Counseling Association (ASCA) Ethical Code, determining the nature and dimensions of the dilemma, potential courses of action, consequences of potential options, evaluating and implementing a chosen course of action.

Problem Identification: The American Counseling Association’s (ACA) Decision Model tells us in order to properly identify a problem or problems of an ethical dilemma we must first gather as much information about the situation as we can before moving forward.