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Table 2 Illustrative data extracts- Thompson’s framework- ethical processes

From: Understanding the school community’s response to school closures during the H1N1 2009 influenza pandemic

Ethical processes

Ethical decision-making or decisions should be…

Evidence of ethical processes in study

Examples - positive

Examples - negative

Accountability, openness and transparency

sustained throughout the crisis and publicly defensible – processes should be open to scrutiny and reasons for decisions publicly accessible

Mixed – strong processes in some schools but not in others

“That Monday morning we had signs on all the gates to say that the school was closed to year 10 students. We had staff monitoring all the gates to make sure if a year 10 student didn’t get the message that we would send them home. Actually we didn’t have a single student turn up…, but I think having the SMS messaging system was absolutely critical. The feedback we got afterward was that instant contact with parents through SMS, through emails, through phone calls, …it was really critical”. [Principal, school 5l]

“It was clear that we were to stay home. It wasn’t clear whether people could visit us. It wasn’t clear whether our family could leave. So the people we lived with…That wasn’t clear but it was very clear that we had to stay home for the week.” [Teacher, school 3]

“If they want them home and in quarantine from potential contact, then it really should be stated that that's what they want. Some people are just going to ignore it anyway, no matter what you do, but for people who do actually read and take notice of these things, it makes it easier to make a more informed decision like yes, I can see the point of this, I will keep them home, not let their friends come around, not take them to sport or out shopping with me sort of thing” [Parent, school 4]

Inclusiveness

made with stakeholder views in mind and stakeholders should be engaged in the decision-making process

Inclusive approaches in some schools but not in all (leading to confusion in message transmission)

. . . we were aware that through Facebook, things were going out absolutely everywhere. So we thought, we can’t stop that, what we can do is educate the [students] so that what they are sending out is informed, we ran through our student leadership groups, we ran seminars . . . to say . . . if you’re going to be talking about this, this is what you should be talking about . . . if you’re going to be talking to your mates or talking to . . . mates of mates, which happens with Twitter and Facebook or whatever, this is what you should be saying.{Principal, school 5]

“.......it became a directive that you must close those classes. … Generally the school knew that that wasn't going to stop it because everyone in the school we believed had some contact with someone else who actually knew that child, so it was either all school closure or non school closure.” [Principal, school 4]

Reasonableness

based on reasons (evidence, principles, values) and made by people who are credible and accountable

In general, perceived lack of clear rationales for closures

 

“It was clear, like just stop I guess interaction with one another and just stop the spread so that was really clear and that’s why I guess I definitely stayed home for a while…It wasn’t clear why we would meet altogether in the gym if that was the case so… Like there was some irony I guess in meeting altogether…” [Teacher, school 3]

“The official line was we refer to the government website … and a lot of the information on there was quite ambiguous..... And it was really putting the onus back onto the individual to make a judgement, as was the case with me. That’s why I made the judgement that well I don’t have any symptoms, I haven’t taught that boy directly, I haven’t come in contact with that boy directly, therefore it’s highly unlikely that I would be irresponsible by going interstate. So, I did, and I was fine”. [Teacher, school 4]

“and the real confusion lies in that the kids were told that they shouldn’t go out and they should stay fairly contained but be at home with family. But the family could all go out and they couldn’t see the logic in it…” [Teacher, school 3]

Responsiveness

revisited and revised as new information emerges

Mixed – while policy changes responded to the changing situation, some members of school communities interpreted the policy shifts as inconsistent and not responsive to local circumstances

 

“I think the biggest issue with school closures…was it wasn’t consistent. They changed the rules and then even after we excluded people, the initial exclusion was for a week but then we changed the rules and told them to come back after two days. So I think that you have to be consistent and there’ll still be phases. I can understand phase one, phase two, phase three or whatever phases they need because once it’s reached a certain point you realise that isn’t working and it’s probably more disruptive than it’s doing any good”. [Teacher, school 2]