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
Though it isn't a pleasant experience to deal with, I have to commend you for handling this situation responsibly Destinee. I think we naturally tend to favor certain students. Administering punishments for those particular students can be one of the most challenging parts of the job. This reminds me of our Philosophy, History, and Ethics of Education class from Core II. We learned about the Principle of Maximum Benefit (I don't remember if that's what it was called, but it sounds legit!). Though those few students will face severe consequences, the punishments involved will set an example for the rest of the school. Word spreads fast among the students and I can guarantee that there will be no incidents of cheating for the remainder of the year. Hang in there Destinee! Your role in this is inspiring and you're a role model to us all!
ReplyDeleteLucky Souvannarath
Destinee,
ReplyDeleteI can see how this is a very troubling situation. You do care for the students and you do get to know them and know that they are not bad students. I agree with Lucky when he says that we naturally favor students. I do think punishments are necessary in this case because cheating is not an easy thing, if you let it go for some students and not the others than they will not learn. It does seem a bit harsh to take away scholarships, however, they need to learn a valuable lesson that cheating is not tolerated. They need to have that academic integrity. This is a tough situation because part of me says that this is needed, but it does seem rather harsh. I bet these students will not cheat again.
This is a good question and an interesting predicament. Cheating is something we will all have to deal with eventually, and it doesn't sound like it's as simple as a write-up. Personally, seeing that this is a college level, AP course, removing their AP credit is a fair punishment because that is what would happen were we caught cheating in a college class. It sounds like the administration had trouble getting people to confess (which is why they had to threaten, I presume?). These students should know better. Period. They knew what they were doing was wrong; this isn't their first year in school. I don't know any of these students, but this wasn't an innocent mistake. It was blatant, they made a choice, and it was a bad one. I have had students commit heinous acts against other teachers in the building, threaten their lives, call my CT a b**ch, smoke pot on campus, and many of them get their write-ups revoked and don't even get a lunch detention for it. These students need to learn their lesson or it will never get better. The only thing I can't say for certain about your particular situation is if the punishments were fair. I wasn't sure if one or all of those things were taken away from students equally, or how it was decided. If students who distributed answers got into more trouble? If Frank got into the most trouble? Or if students who took the answers got the least punishment? I think all the punishments should be equal because the act was intentional, not accidental, no matter their role. It sounds harsh, but I guarantee they won't do it again.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
Lindsay
P.S. I hope Frank's mom doesn't weasel him out of this. He needs to be punished.
ReplyDeleteThis is such an inconvenient situation. You feel bad for these students but you also know that they have to be punished because what they did was wrong. The students should be punished because they need to learn that cheating is not the answer, I do however find some of the consequences a bit extreme. Just like you mentioned prom, retaking the test, or even them receiving a zero sounds reasonable; but to take away their scholarships and their opportunity to receive dual credit just sounds a bit extreme to me. This is a tough situation to be in because as teacher we care about these students and we want them to be successful' but we also can't let them walk away with no consequences after they've been caught cheating. While student teaching I have came across with two situations similar to this one, except their cheating involved plagiarism. The first one was a two question quiz that I let one of the students take home because it was open note and open book, when he turned it in it didn’t sound like his work so I googled it and sure enough there it was. He received a zero for the assignment and had to have a conversation with administration, because it was only a quiz there was not much damage done to him or his grade. The second one involved two students who turned in the exact same paper, this one involved the students receiving a zero for the 150 point assignment, calling their parents, and having to have a talk with administration. One of the students is close to failing because of this and you can't help but to worry about them and think about whether the punishment was too harsh. I think if I had my own classroom and this happened I would give the students a choice to rewrite the paper and receive half credit. This way it's their choice to receive a zero and they're still being punished for what they have done.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing Destinee!