So this past week some of the best and the brightest of my
students have been punished for participating in a cheating scandal. Some of
the punishments are so severe that I began to wonder what I would do if it were
MY own classroom.
Here’s how it all went down…
My CT was absent this past week and as many teachers do, she
left a folder containing sub notes. The “lesson” for the day was a test over
the book they just finished reading and conveniently enough the answer key for
the test was also in the folder. Before class started as we (the sub, myself,
and neighboring teachers) stood outside the class, one of the students, who we will call Frank for
confidentiality reasons, was caught by THE DEPARTMENT CHAIR taking a picture of
the “class roster” (so he said). After
checking and failing to find picture evidence on his phone there was not much
we could do at that point, except to report it.
Consequences, at first, was a simple phone call home to parents and
a meeting with the principle, but after the initial class and another AP
English class took the scheduled test, evidence of the cheating became completely
apparent. Students who had never scored
higher than a ‘C’ (70%) suddenly and miraculously scored a 100%. And worst of
all, the students involved were not careful (or ironically smart) enough to NOT
talk about sending and/or receiving the picture message with all of the
answers. My CT and I had no clue who all was involved but after students were interrogated
and threatened the names became to come out. The class president, the
Valedictorian, athletes, and many other students who had received college
scholarships were all involved in the “scandal.”
Punishments go as follows:
Re-take the exam
Membership to the NHS (National Honors Society) revoked
No prom
No speeches made at graduation
Scholarships revoked
No walking at graduation (if they did not confess to being a
part of the cheating ring)
And because this is an AP class and it counts for a dual
(college) credit, which they pay for, they are determining if they should withdraw
any credit obtained for the course.\
Some of these punishments seem fittingly enough (no prom
& Re-taking the test), but others such as eliminating scholarships and
walking at graduation is too severe and harsh a punishment.
One bad apple spoiled the bunch and now everyone else must
pay while Frank’s detective mother tries to fight the consequences, and he acts
nonchalantly. I care about these students, they are all so sweet and always
smiling, and all I can think is how unfortunate this situation is. Am I
disappointed? Yes. But are they good kids? Absolutely! They just made a bad decision.
What would you guys do? Do you think these punishments are
too extreme? Do you guys think Frank’s punishment should be worse?
Happy Blogging!
Des
