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Marlen Gonzalez

South Texas College

ORGL-3322-KV5-Business Ethics I-CBE

Scott Sparrow

March 2, 2023
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Whistleblower

I am currently employed at IDEA College Prep in Donna Texas, I am a Co-Teacher and I am being

asked to assist teachers with their students on the daily, and assist with taking them out of their current classes

and helping them with work they might be behind on, exams, and make-up work. This is my first year in this

position and I was thoroughly enjoying it, until I wasn’t. I realized how I was being used daily by my other co-

workers. These are employees who have a degree, who have a set position, and they are taking advantage of

the fact that I am extra help and requiring me to do their daily duties. I am normally very compliant and very

much like my character Hannibal Lecter, who is professional, intelligent, sophisticated, and observant, but this

time I decided to speak up. I decided to speak out about the injustices of my work place, and tell my manager

in one of our private meetings. I guess you could say that I became the “whistleblower” and told a few people

and how rude, manipulating, and lazy they were being. I made the decision to speak up because I am a grown

adult, I followed the chain of command and went to my immediate manager like I was trained to do. Unlike

Eichmann, I did not just sit and comply with the injustices and spoke up about my disagreement with the

treatment I was receiving at work. (Stagneth 2014).

School districts can be good or can be bad, and working there now gives me an inside look as to what

really goes on with our children. Me whistleblowing about a teacher was just the surface, nothing was done

with that employee and I learned to work through my struggles at work but then another incident occurred and

that is when I learned the true horrors of the educational system. Just like every other job or company, we all

have a boss and that happens to be the principal, everyone follows orders and there is one thing in particular

that I was very upset about, but just like the marketers and sales men in Pharma I kept quiet and that is when I

knew just how corrupt the school system was. The way school systems work is that we get funded by students

who attend, and if there is any chaos or bad treatment with students then the parents choose not to have them

attend that school and we lose money. I then realized that keeping things quiet was their go too, and I was not

ok with that, yet I did not fight the system. I kept quiet much like the Pharma marketers and salesmen. (Joseph,

Andrew 2020).

A teacher got a tip that a student might or might not have a gun on campus, the teacher then proceeded

to message her other teacher co-workers of what she suspected instead of taking action right away. The correct
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thing would’ve been to confiscate the student’s item, and call a school lockdown to make sure everyone was

safe in the case the gun was real. Instead, the teachers chat about it and the student gets called into an office

and they call parents about the student bringing a toy gun to school. Just ten minutes later the school proceeded

about their day and continued to have a school pep-rally, with a gym full of 500 plus students. I understand the

gun was fake, and the “threat” had been dealt with but it could’ve gone south really quick. That is when I ask

myself, “Could there be more students involved, are they in the gym with 500 other students, are we out of

danger or sitting ducks, are my kids down the hall safe, why didn’t they call a lockdown, why do we even have

these drills, all these questions go through my mind.” After all of that, is when it really hits me, we are in it for

profit and not for ethical reasons. Not everyone is in it for the students, just like everyone else, we are in it for

the money. I realized that the principal did not want to bring attention to the school, and she did not want to

cause a scene, instead we acted like nothing happened and continued about our day.

I can now understand why Eichmann and Pharma marketing team and salesmen did what they did,

they followed orders even if they were not in agreement with what they were asked to do. Eichmann killed

people, hundreds and thousands of people and Pharma company got people killed as well, by sending salesmen

to pitch Oxycontin and thousands of people died. Everyone just follows orders, but it would be nice if some

people spoke up. Speaking up is scary, and I’m barely talking about this situation now on paper but I was also

not brave enough to speak up when it happened. It is intimidating to speak about injustices, it can be

overwhelming and I can understand that one’s job is on the line, which is why everyone keeps quiet. I wish I

was more of a whistleblower and had the backbone to speak the truth, many of the companies out there need

that so the injustices can stop. (Joseph, Andrew 2020).

If you’d ask me a year ago, what leadership role is the most important in my company I would’ve

answered the Principal right away but now I know that it is everyone below the Principal who is truly in charge

and holds the power. It is the security guard making sure our children are safe, the custodian who makes sure

everything is clean, it is the co-teacher making sure all the students are being taught when the teacher is giving

the lesson, it is the cafeteria staff making sure everyone is fed, and it is the teachers who are the eyes and ears

in the classroom that is important. Even though the Principal calls the shots at the end of the day, it is everyone

else who could either agree or disagree with his/her decisions and make things right when there is an unethical
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thing taking place. The evilness that a school system can potentially perpetrate is shaping and molding our

future students down a wrong path. The school system is in charge of shaping them for a better tomorrow, and

if we are not teaching them right from wrong then we are failing them. If we are teaching them to hide things,

sweep them under the rug, lie, cheat, and just pretend things are good when they are not then we have failed.

The little Eichmann’s are the staff, and they can be persuaded to keep their jobs, they might feel that if they

speak up they will not have a job. If I occupied a leadership role, I would be a good role model. I would make

sure my company was not corrupt, and that everyone knew they could come to me if they felt threatened, or

uncomfortable with anything at my company. It is important to run a business with integrity, compassion, and

lead by example. If something is unethical I would want my staff to recognize that and call me out on it and

not to be afraid. I am pursuing my degree, to better shape our future students. Shaping them and molding them

at a young age is necessary for our country to be and do better in our next generation.

On these two previous post test papers, we had to write about evil and if a person who does evil is an

evil doer or is evil true at heart. We wrote about Eichmann and how Arendt did not believe he was an evil

person, he had just committed evil crimes by simply following instructions. Same goes for Purdue Pharma,

they were an evil company because they lied about a product they had on the shelves and it ended up killing

hundred and thousands of people. The salesmen and marketers marketing the drug were also just following

orders but unfortunately a lot of people died. So, are the marketers evil or just committed an evil crime? This

has shown me a different perspective on life in general, because now I know that once I get my degree and

make my choice of what I would like to do with and where I’d like to work, I will have to choose wisely. I

need to choose a company with good morals, good ethics, and know that they have my back and that I am

working for a great company and not just a money maker. These were interesting topics, and it gives me a

better insight as to what can be expected out there in the real world. (Arendt, Hannah 2006).
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References

Valdez, Maria G. (July 29, 2013). "Thomas Harris, 'Silence Of The Lambs' Author, Reveals Hannibal

Lecter Was Inspired By Real Life Mexican Doctor". Latin Times. Retrieved November 12, 2020.

https://aeon.co/ideas/what-did-hannah-arendt-really-mean-by-the-banality-of-evil

Stangneth, Bethina (2014). Eichmann before Jerusalem: The unexamined life of a mass murderer.

New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

https://www.statnews.com/2020/01/09/prescriber-fears-oxycontin-misuse-purdue-pharma-sales-reps-

misleadingly-played-up-safety/

Arendt, Hannah (2006). Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banilty of Evil.