Accused Of Cheating

<p>So today i was accused of cheating by my bio professor. She took my lab book and started ripping out pages saying that the signature i had inside wasn't right. she then went to the lab and asked the instructor in their if the signature was hers and she said no. i clearly remember her signing my book pages, but the professor doesn't believe me. she is now not responding to my emails and i dont know what to do. someone please help me. i don't want to have this on my record. if she goes through with it she'll drop me from the class and ill get an f in the class. what should i do?</p>

<p>Professor? Are you in college? If so, then there usually a committee that oversees these cases. The professor files a report and then the committee brings in the student to question him or her.</p>

<p>There is an order to this and I am surprised that your professor started ripping out pages. Sounds pretty immature.</p>

<p>I don’t know how it goes at a high school, but maybe others can chime in. Well, if you didn’t cheat, then stand your ground and don’t let them intimidate you. </p>

<p>Also, What real proof do they have? In other words does your professor have actual evidence that you cheated (e.g. eyewitness, handwriting copies, similar answers on a test, etc.) or is this entire thing based on her personal feelings?</p>

<p>Let us know how things go.</p>

<p>I am in college. So in the lab book, there’s some sections that get signed by the instructor in the lab and my professor said that it wan’t signed by the instructor in their. she then went into the lab and asked the instructor if she signed it and the instructor said that she didn’t. And i clearly remember her signing it. It’s really frustrating to me and I’m really worried that I’ll get dropped from the class.
She’s saying that the instructors signatures don’t match.</p>

<p>What started this? Normally a professor doesn’t all of a sudden accuse a student of cheating and start ripping a student’s lab book.

If the lab instructor had signed in the lab book, why did she deny it? Did the lab instructor look at (supposedly her) signature in the lab book?</p>

<p>I’m not saying you’re not saying the truth. I’m saying there must be a reason.</p>

<p>From what you’re saying, there seems to be a conspiracy against you.</p>

<p>Ok so today the roll sheet went around the room and when it got to me, next to my name it said “see me” so after class i went up and talked to the professor to see what it was. she said that i wasn’t spending enough time on labs. i finish my labs in like an hour and 45 minutes. She took my lab book and started ripping out the pages where she said it wasn’t the signature and that’s when she went to confirm with the other instructor. She then came up to me and said that the instructor said that she didn’t sign them, when she did. I clearly remember her signing them. And she kept asking me if i have anything to tell her. I didn’t do anything wrong and i know that. I emailed her and she emailed me back a couple times and she hasn’t replied to my last email and I’m getting annoyed because she won’t explain to me why she thinks I’m lying. I emailed her asking why she won’t explain it to me. And she said come to my office during office hours and every time she has office hours I have another class going on. So i dont know what to do.</p>

<p>Again, there is a protocol with this kind of thing. I would, if possible, talk to the department head or the dean of the college to resolve this issue.</p>

<p>The professor tearing up the pages and presumably throwing them away just helps you out because the evidence is now gone either way. I still think what this professor did was over the top.</p>

<p>I also think it’s a bit silly for the professor to play detective and think that the instructor’s sig don’t match. When did she become an expert handwriting analyst? Although, my own sig is pretty consistent, there are times when it will be different for whatever reason such as fatigue (after signing a 100 papers like this instructor could have done) to just wanting to be different one time.</p>

<p>At this point, it just looks like your word against hers without any real evidence.</p>

<p>I think she kept the pages though. The pages she ripped out had the signatures on them and she went to the other instructor to confirm the signatures with her and she said they weren’t hers. </p>

<p>And i was going through my lab book to see all of her signatures and not even all of them look the same. So like you said, when did she become and expert handwriting analyst, it’s true because I literally just went through all the pages that she signed and not every single one looks the same. So this is just really annoying.</p>

<p>I just want to pass the class and move on to the next one. I’m not trying to have these petty little problems about a signature.</p>

<p>If you have to, you can hire a legit handwriting analysis person to come in. They will prove it with 98 percent accuracy</p>

<p>That seems a bit extreme doesn’t it? And I don’t exactly have the money for that either.</p>

<p>First, you probably don’t have the time or money to hire a professional. Why don’t you ask one of your friends to see their book? Maybe your teacher likes one of your friends, she sounds like a teacher that has favorites. If her signatures really are different each time, it should be the same on every book. If you feel that this might cause her to dislike your friends, then don’t try it. Hopefully one of your friends is kind of the teachers pet. Kind of. Not trying to insult anyone here. Anyway, just show her that you did not fake the signatures, unless you have suddenly become really good at copying other peoples handwriting. If her signatures are different on every page, it should be the same for everyone else.</p>

<p>Again. Go to the department head, unless that professor is the department head. I guess you can bet that the department head will side with the professor, but if that’s the case, I’d go to the dean.</p>

<p>I mean, if you are innocent, then you should do what you can to clear your name. The consequences appear to be worse.</p>

<p>Still, there doesn’t seem to be any clear evidence that you cheated. People can change handwriting and memories can be sketchy especially if people are tired or if they are signing a bunch of these in a given week.</p>

<p>@Mewcat60. That’s good advice. If this instructor signed your pages differently or slightly differently then it’s possible that he/she did the same for other students.</p>

<p>@mewcat60 none of my friends are in this class and i haven’t had any problems with this professor until today. I don’t know how i can show her that I didn’t do it. She took the pages out of my book and she wouldn’t give them back to me. It’s not that her signatures are different on every page, it’s that they have a slight difference. Not a huge difference, but i mean if you were to just glance at the signature you could tell that they’re from the same person. </p>

<p>@dvader123 The lady that does the signing is in there for a long time and there’s over 500 students in the biology lab every week. I’m trying to prove that I’m innocent, but it’s like she doesn’t want to listen to me. When I was trying to tell her earlier, she kept rolling her eyes like she didn’t care what I had to say.</p>

<p>I think you just have to be a little stubborn. Don’t be mean, just tell her that you have to at least let her know your side of the story. She doesn’t have any real proof that she didn’t sign it besides her memory, which is not really proof. Does your school have videos or something? Maybe you can use that if you remember the day she signed it.</p>

<p>I have been, i sent her an email since the incident and she replied to the first few and then when I asked her to explain further, she stopped replying. I don’t know if we have videos. And I don’t remember what day it was. All I know is that she signed it. The fact that she ripped out the pages and is doing all of this is pretty ridiculous. And like I said earlier, she wants me to go to her office during the hours she’s available, but every time she has office hours, I have another class going on. And in college, you don’t want to miss a class because of all the information you could miss. So I don’t know what else to do. I’m waiting to see if she responds to my last email.</p>

<p>I guess the only thing i can say is to see if your school has cameras and wait for her reply. If you ask her too much, she might get annoyed.</p>

<p>I don’t think there are any cameras. I haven’t seen any. Yeah, i just don’t want to have to deal with this. Its annoying to me. But thank you for your opinion. It means a lot to me. I’m so worried that I’m gonna get reported and have to go do one of those cases and have to justify everything to someone else. I mean, I get that it’s going to be the professor/instructors word over mine, but what more can I do. And I don’t want to be dropped from the class when I already spent so much time doing all the work. And then have to take the class over again would be ridiculous.</p>

<p>Why don’t you try setting up a time that both of you can meet that ISN’T during her regular office hours. You can’t be the first student to have another class during those hours. </p>

<p>If this story is true, then that professor sounds ridiculously petty. Sheesh</p>

<p>I’ll see what she says if she ever responds to my email. Thanks.</p>

<p>Your academic career is in jeopardy and you don’t want to miss class to go see the Professor??? MISS CLASS!!!</p>