<p>^^^Because it’s a lot of work to come up with different tests.</p>
<p>cptofthehouse, “Snitching?” Really? That’s the word you’re going to use for a young person who is doing the right thing? </p>
<p>You don’t have to know someone cheated to turn them in. All this student has to do is forward the emails to their professor who will no doubt change the test.</p>
<p>I’ve followed this thread with interest and want to thank all the posters for their thoughts and differing perspectives.</p>
<p>The big takeaway for me is that I need to have a chat with my daughter about all this.</p>
<p>She’s a hs junior at a small Catholic prep school that teaches/promotes strong character and values, including academic honesty/integrity. I’m sure there’s the occasional instance of cheating, but in her 3 yrs there, we’ve never heard of it. The Student Handbook that every student AND parent signs is very clear and explicit about their policy.</p>
<p>My concern is that she is a super high achieving, perhaps somewhat na</p>
<p>To the OP:
Your son could leave an anonymous note for the teacher. </p>
<p>It is very easy for CCers to tell you that your S should turn in his friends. They won’t bear any of the consequences. Your son’s high school isn’t West Point.</p>
<p>I’m glad to hear the other situation is over with a non-disastrous outcome. The high school needs to establish some policies, educate their students about the potential consequences of cheating (and helping others cheat) in on-line classes, and improve the proctoring.</p>
<p>Parents need to do their part in educating the kids before they ever get to high school that cheating is wrong, always wrong.</p>
<p>If students have grown up with a moral conscience, know their parents prefer them to be honest than earning better grades through immoral means, the schools would not have to amp up proctoring.</p>
<p>Pugmadkate, yes, snitching becomes a very real thing if that a kid becomes labeled as such. I know of two kids whose idealistic parents felt that snitching is such a word that should not be used but noble euphemisms should be employed. That didn’t help the kids an iota when they got labeled as snitches. </p>
<p>I would not hesitate an instant to go full court press if there is truly a provable instance of cheating. I would report it and take the hell and fury. I’ve done it. No anonymous letters about it. But to make an unprovable charge is true folly. I’ve seen nothing but trouble come from that. </p>
<p>First of all, it is a serious accusation to make. You had better be danged sure. And if the proof is not there and the situation has to be dropped, the accuser can be in trouble too. I am trying to be realistic about how these things work. </p>
<p>If a system looks like it is open for cheating, but you cannot prove your suspicions that people are cheating, let the department or teacher know of how easily the cheating can occur. </p>
<p>Yes, I am using the word “snitch” because it is a serious label for a kid to get when the word gets out. If the evidence does not pan out, it can result in a problem for someone so labeled. </p>
<p>I am appalled at this particular situation where the OP’s son is being accused of cheating when the only proof is an unlikely statistical pattern on multiple choice tests. To me, that is not proof positive. However, it may by definition, be so. I consider cheating, stealing accusations to be big deal things that should not be directly levied unless there is proof.</p>
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<p>No, it is not slick in the slightest. It is the statement of a person who is innocent and believes in JUSTICE.</p>
<p>It is the statement of an idealist, not a cynic, which is what you appear to be.</p>
<p>Normally I take a dim view of snitching, but I think your S should immediately turn in the other student. He cannot afford to become the victim of a cheater again.</p>
<p>I don’t know if I related this story. I know of a young, unaware, naive young man who was punished for cheating. Clearly, someone copied his work or he copied that person’s. The young man truly did not know this was done. Both students were punished. IT came out much, much later that the other kid had cheated. He admitted it many years later, thinking it was funny how the other kid was punished as well. The policy of the school was that if it was proven that someone copied off another, both parties are at fault. Period. It was each student’s responsibility to keep his answers safe.</p>
<p>OP, what if someone stumbles upon the text message sent by the other student to your son regarding having the answers to the test? It happens. This would not look good for your son, although clearly there would be no proof your son did anything wrong, and he clearly hasn’t. Still, at this point I would take all necessary steps to protect your son from any further accusations of being involved in any type of cheating. Consider notifying someone at the school of your son receiving this text now, in whatever way you feel comfortable, to head off potential trouble down the road.</p>
<p>smom123, I’d normally advise your son not to turn in the student who sent him the text messages. As a faculty member, I’ve worked for our version of the honor code to include a statement by the students that they will not cheat, but not to include a statement that they will turn in anyone they suspect of cheating. (We’re not West Point, obviously.) However, I think your son is in a very delicate situation right now. Although there is no “formal” record that he cheated, a WF in a psychology course would raise a question about that, for anyone seeing the university transcript. If it were calculus, physics, or chemistry, one would conclude that he just wasn’t up to the challenge of the work–or that he could do it, but didn’t realize the level of effort required at the beginning and got too far behind. PSY is different in that regard.</p>
<p>So I think your son is more or less stuck turning the other student in.</p>
<p>I don’t think someone seeing a WF on a transcript is going to make people suspect cheating just because it was a psychology class. All a WF means is that the student withdrew from the course after the deadline for a W. This could happen for any number of reasons, including the student decided to drop the class early on, but neglected to take care of the paperwork (this happens surprisingly often, ime), had health problems, missed an important exam for some reason or other, just didn’t like the class and was getting bad grades, etc. </p>
<p>For students at that university, there may be consequences on the GPA and academic standing, but based on what the OP has said, the main consequences of this for her son are the unpleasant and stressful experience he’s been through and losing the credit for a course that he worked hard on. This is bad enough–no need to make it seem worse than it is.</p>
<p>motherbear332, I think you might have misunderstood the designation “WF” (or maybe I did). At many schools, after the deadline has passed for withdrawing with no grade recorded, the two options are “WF” and “WP,” namely “withdrawn failing” and “withdrawn passing.” Not sure that applies here, but I think that is why the high school was at first inclined to treat “WF” as a failing grade. Later they changed their minds, presumably based on the unfairness to smom123’s son.</p>
<p>Addendum: If “WF” just means “withdrew too late” at the school where smom123’s son was taking the course, then it’s ok. On the other hand, if the school does have “WF” and “WP,” and this was not explained to them, then they might have grounds for re-opening the conversation. The student is in high school, after all, and perhaps should not be presumed to understand the university’s grading system in full.</p>
<p>QuantMech,</p>
<p>It is school dependent. At my undergraduate college, a W was given up to a certain date (which did not affect the GPA) and a WF was given after that date (which counted as a 0 and did affect GPA).</p>
<p>QuantMech,</p>
<p>Schools are different, and since none of us know which university is involved, we don’t know what the rules are there. </p>
<p>But, at the schools I’m familiar with it is like bigtree described. You can withdraw with a W up to a certain date, which doesn’t count in the GPA, but after that date you get a WF which counts as failure in the GPA. Each student can only have a certain number of Ws on the way to their degree, so they are recorded in the transcript even though they don’t count in the GPA.</p>
<p>But even if the university in question has WP and WF, the main point I was objecting to was the suggestion that anyone who saw the WF would immediately suspect cheating (because it was a psychology course). This is simply not true in either case.</p>