¶ … American school Counseling Association (ASCA) holds various positions when it comes to professional school counselors and their conduct with students. The paper will look at three of these positions carefully and compare with my own view, opinion and expectations of what school counselors actually do. The professional school counselor and child abuse and neglect prevention

ASCA position on school counselor and child abuse and neglect prevention is that; it is the professional school counselor's ethical, legal and moral responsibility to ensure that they report any case or suspected case of child abuse/neglect to proper authorities. They are also supposed to recognize that child abuse is not only limited to their homes but corporal punishment by school authorities is as well considered to be child abuse. ASCA is in support of any legislation which bans using corporal punishment as a tool for disciplining students in schools. The rationale behind ASCA's position is that there has been a significant increase of the cases of child abuse and neglect over the years. Though the society believes that it is the right of parents to discipline their children the way they deem appropriate, it becomes a public affair when this discipline turns abusive. Consequences of abuse and neglect are physical and emotional. State laws require that those in helping professions that have a reasonable cause to believe that a child is suffering from abuse should report the situation as required by state laws to the appropriate authorities. Professional school counselors have the mandate of reporting hence they require policies, referral procedures and adequate knowledge. It is only a moral, legal and ethical responsibility of ensuring that one reports any case of child...

Since ASCA recognizes that it is the absolute responsibility of these professional school counselors to make sure they report cases they suspect to be of child abuse and neglect, the Professional school counselors have a commitment of ensuring that they come up with strategies of helping to break the child abuse cycle. I totally agree with this position by ASCA since professional school counselor's act as a link to the network of preventing child abuse. Without these counselors then there would be no way of finding out if there are cases of child abuse/neglect as well. Their role is also important as they assist in coming up with ways of helping and guiding students who have gone through abuse and neglect. However, there must be a reprieve or caveat that can take into account the possibility of an abuse taking place without the proper knowledge of the professional school counselor and this may not be out of neglect or negligence. This then calls for the societal approach to stamping out child abuse within the schools and the American society as a whole.
The professional school counselor and corporal punishment

ASCA position on corporal punishment is that professional counselors oppose the use of corporal punishment. The rational behind this position is that the professional school counselors view the use of corporal punishment as one that is likely to teach children that violence is acceptable when it comes to solving differences. Research has shown that physical punishment is quite an ineffective way of teaching new behaviors in children and also ineffective in teaching skills of solving problems. Professional school counselors are responsible for the protection of students as well as promoting their healthy development and learning. They…