<p>I'm not sure anyone can help with this other than to say "there, there now" but here it goes....</p>
<p>I am just sickened by the amount of cheating I've encountered lately. There is a student at our high school that has been taking other student's papers out of the turn in file and copying down the answers (once this person even took the teacher's guide). This student received no disciplinary the first time. The second time ISS and removed from Honor Society. It continued. This last time 3 days ISS and some zeros--but final grades for rank cut last nine weeks. This student has cheated in at least three AP classes this year.</p>
<p>What irks me is that this student was able to falsley top ten percent their way into a state uni (the grades should have been either failing or zeros for the copied work IMO), and now they are accumulating scholarships, money that has not been reported to the school, either. I don't know why the school does not feel it can do something more radical. pfft! </p>
<p>This comes on the heels of hearing a former student from our high school was expelled from UT for cheating. I also have a friend that quit and on-line teaching postition because that company refused to do anything with the plagarism she found.</p>
<p>I'm saddened about what lengths people will go to to reach their goals. I recently found out that a mom that I used to think highly of has written papers for her son in college. I look at that family in a different way now.</p>
<p>Awwwww, texas, I know how frustrating this must be for you! That is really disgraceful, particularly because it occurred MORE than the one time someone could call a "bad mistake" or "poor judgment". </p>
<p>It is so very difficult to see that some DO benefit from cheating, especially when we've watched our children work so hard and behave in honorable ways to EARN what they did in high school.</p>
<p>I have no doubt that our school would react just as yours did, particularly if the student had connections in this dinky town. There was one guy who broke into the middle school gym and stole equipment about two years ago and didn't even have to miss one baskbetball game as a consequence. Meanwhile, my son sat the bench.</p>
<p>With college admissions being so very competitive, this is bound to happen. I WISH I could say that this type of thing would invariably catch up with the person, but truthfully, I don't think it always does. The bottom line I tell my kids is that they have to be able to live with themselves (and with ME, at least until they leave the house! <em>lol</em>).</p>
<p>I find it so sad that people who cheat either are too lazy to do their own work or are not intelligent enough to do so. Either way, these are not the kind of students who deserve scholarships. It is pitiful that while some students are working their butts off, others are cheating their way through the system. I wonder if the school to which this student has been accepted didn't need a letter of recommendation from the counselor? If so, I can only hope the counselor would have noted the cheating incidents. In the end, the cheaters are only cheating themselves. How long can someone go through life on the coattails of another?</p>
<p>I am wondering if anything was said...the GC does know of the cheating. I mean, everyone does! I don't know what the school is so afraid of...it's academic dishonesty plain and simple. There is the last transcript that goes in, perhaps it <em>should</em> be noted there, but I doubt it will. </p>
<p>The scholarships are mostly local, and will be awarded on banquet night. This child has elected not to report them in the "outside scholarships" box. Maybe we can all turn our backs like they do at the Citadel? Think of all the deserving students that were not selected, and they honestly came by their grades.</p>
<p>What is sad is that if this child goes up to UT and pulls the same stunt, we will have TWO students expelled for cheating. I can't imgaine that will do well for our school. Then again, it's been circling the drain for a few years.</p>
<p>We had a number of expulsions a few years ago for students who had stolen a test and then passed it among themselves in preparation for mid-terms. They were seniors, and varsity athletes. Gone. But that's a private school, I don't know what would have happened at the public school, where it's much harder to expel. Does anyone remember 3-4 years back, a UVA professor started checking his students' papers to search for phrases lifted without attribution from other published sources--I think he actually developed a program that could do this rather simply. It resulted in a bunch of expulsions for violations of their Honor Code, and according to the WSJ (where I first read about it) they were talking about even checking important papers of students who had already GRADUATED, and retroactivley rescinding their degrees if they found evidence of plagiarism!</p>
<p>My kids come home with stories that make me ill, really. I just tell them to take the higher ground, and know that they worked hard for the B+, while the other kid stole the A. But seriously, it is easier said than done, because even as a parent, it is galling that this happens. And we know how it affects deciles, rankings, and eventually admissions. </p>
<p>My wife is an English teacher. She has resorted to using what I think is called turnitin.com (or something like that). The program reads the student's paper and creates a score as to home much it overlaps published sources. A low score is probably coincidence, while a high score indicates a lot of copying. If a student has a paper with a high score he better have a lot of quotation marks and foot notes.<br>
As to the specific situation that TTM faces I think turning one's back or leaving the room suddenly is perfectly acceptable. (especially if lots of people did it)</p>
<p>I have caught three cases of plagiarism this semester by typing some specific sentences into Google. It's amazing how easy it is to find the source.</p>
<p>The Internet in some ways also blurs the lines of what is cheating. My daughter used an online library subscription for her English term paper. She had already chosen her topic, and was fine tuning it when someone gave us a tip for this website. It allows you to search the equivalent of a college library, and printout pages or partial chapters for note taking, like you would do with a book you were using as a primary source for a paper - saved her a lot of trips to the nearby college library.
I was looking up the website today to recommend it to the child of a friend, and noticed that it lists search topics as links - you click on the person's name or topic and it gives you a list of resources - is that cheating? What if you needed a paper for English Fri, and you were struggling with a topic? She already had her topic, but deciding on a subject was not easy, since it was for AP literature, she had to be able to pick a narrow subject, but one that was addressed in more than one book of literary criticism - if she was trolling for a topic and clicked on different possiblities to see which were addressed in several articles - would that be cheating? I believe she was honest - she is obsessive about honesty, but I could see how you could use the website possibly dishonestly, and how it could be confusing.</p>
<p>My daughter's competitive public IB High School has had increased cheating this year. Some of it seems to stem from the students being so very busy that they, in desperation, resort to cheating, others feel tremendous pressure to keep up the grades and they are willing to do anything to stay in the top of the class, and still others just simply don't think the rules apply to them. It's disturbing to see how many students are willing to do "whatever it takes" to get the grade. Like the OP's situation, everyone seems to know who the cheaters are, including the administration and teachers, but the school does not consequate the behavior with any severity. There's not much risk in cheating and too many kids seem willing to see cheating as a viable option when there is too little time to adequately study. I don't wish to blame the "system" on a problem that is an individual choice and I am definitely not excusing cheating in any way whatsoever, but I can see how easy it is to rationalize and resort to the behavior in the absence of any severe negative consequences and the presence of positive ones. Less busy work, less emphasis on grades, severe consequences for cheating might all help, but there will always be those who will steal and those who will look the other way when they do.</p>
<p>But see, then the school can brag about how many college these brats get into....</p>
<p>What is happening this day and age, is the feeling of entitlement without following the rules. We see it in sports, politics </p>
<p>There must be something to be done. If everyone knows, but is covering up, I would send a letter to the college. Seriouslly. Just state the facts. Say, as a citizen of the state of Texas, you feel ripped off that some student cheated and is getting the state scholarship money. I would also send a note to the school reporting the money. </p>
<p>Do you have any more kids in the school? If not, what the heck, raise a stink. You can wait till your kid graduates,to protect them.</p>
<p>As soon as my 8th grader starts high school, and she is away fromt he clutches of tyranny at her school, the letters will fly. I felt so hypocritical not saying anything, but I didn't want her life to get worse. Now, I am gonna finally be able to step up.</p>
<p>It's my last one at that school. My younger two are in a smaller school....while the cheating has yet to catch my eye, there was an alcohol incident where the teacher provided alcohol to students before a basketball game. She was fired. Nothing happened to the kids, even though they were visibly drunk and stopped by an assistant principal. It goes back to that flaunting the rules/entitlement. I can run but I can't hide. :(</p>
<p>Idler, it sure is difficult, but unfortunately necessary. All three students were disciplined by the Dean, and have this in their records now. They are given once chance to straighten out, and then that's it.</p>
<p>I can't believe the school doesn't have an honor code. The college surely must. At my D's school, on the 2nd strike you are on probration, thrid strike, gone. </p>
<p>The only conselation is that this kid will get caught someday. Arrogance breeds stupidy and carelessness. So, just know you are out of that school that doesn't really care about honesty and doing the right thing, and your child is moving on. In college, you get caught cheating, it is taken very seriouslly.</p>
<p>As an aside, does this kids family have connections and money? Obviouslly the kdi isn't very smart to have to resort to cheating, and I bet the family as bailed them out more than once. </p>
<p>Kids need strong examples from their families and communities to overcome the urge to cheat when the going gets tough. The world is in a very confusing state of affairs right now and our society sends some very mixed messages regarding what kinds of people succeed in life. Without a very clear message from parents, I think kids sometimes don't develop as clear a sense of right and wrong as we think they do.
Schools who punish kids who cheat should be loudly supported. Sometimes that's the only reality check these kids get.</p>