Thoughts on Consequentialist View

I've never been put into a situation in which I have to choose the "ethical" thing to do regarding a star athlete. However, the more I think about our class discussion from Tuesday night, the more I realize that I may not be the most ethical person in the world. My first thought with many of the cases was to protect the student and not give failing grades or expulsion as a punishment. I think that many people would say that a student that fails to follow the rules deserves to fail the course. I wonder if their minds would change if and when they are actually presented with a situation like the one with Henry. I know that I used to say that I would always do the "ethical" thing no matter what the circumstances, but for some reason I have changed my view somewhere down the line. I have learned that once I am actually faced with a situation in which an important decision needs to be made, that I might alter my beliefs. I think that I would have a hard time giving a student an "F", especially knowing their personality and having had them in class for the entire semester. What if I actually like this student and think that they have potential to be great in whatever they choose to do in life? How then could I make a decision to fail them when I see so much potential? I just feel that sometimes people say that they would make this decision or that decision, but in the end they end up changing their mind to an "unethical" decision when they are actually faced with the situation. I know that I have been guilty of doing this as well. In the past I have said that I would do a certain thing if faced with a particular situation, but I ended up making a totally different decision when the time came. I guess this means that I look at situations from a consequentialist view since I want to make sure that the consequences of my decision does not affect the student in a negative way. I’ve always been this type of thinker, and who knows maybe later on down the road I will actually change my view when I’m faced with a situation similar to this one.