<p>Today after class, my English teacher comes talk to me and asks me what I think is wrong with my 1 and a half month project that was such a big deal that we had everything laminated, created a book for it etc. I say IDK.. she tells me to think about it for a couple of minutes and comes back. I ask her what is it, and she says she has reason to believe I plagiarized. </p>
<p>By this point, I was super shocked. I couldn't believe it. How could someone like me, a super overachiever possibly plagiarize this? So i ask her who said this, when, how come, etc.. and what I find out is that another teacher was impressed by my work, read it, and said it was almost 100% plagiarized. </p>
<p>I then asked who i plagiarized from, and she says it was from my brother (the teacher who read it was my brother's teacher when they did this project last year). Now, let me give you some background info on my brother. He's the typical HS kid who isn't too concerned about grades, copies HW from other students, gets B's and C's, etc. Now, why in God's name would i copy a project of this size from my brother?</p>
<p>So today i go home, find a copy of the project from my brother, read it and see that there's NOTHING IN COMMON. In fact, it's so bad I was insulted that she thought i would copy something like this. My mom was so angry she even threatened to sue the school lol.</p>
<p>Tomorrow's is gonna be fun :) I've got my evidence.</p>
<p>Does the project your brother made have any notes from the teacher on it? If, for some reason, this other teacher refuses to believe that that was the project he made, it would help to have annotations from the teacher showing that she graded it. Good luck, hope they withdraw the accusation.</p>
<p>I don’t know which teacher I would blame more for this fiasco. I think your own teacher - she should have known what kind of student you are at this point in the school year, and at least given you the benefit of the doubt. Your brother’s teacher is just an idiot - accusing someone she doesn’t even know, and not caring or remembering that your brother was an average student who was probably not capable of that level of work.</p>
<p>Please let us know how this turns out. It will be interesting to see the principal’s response.</p>
<p>word of caution…don’t rage. Be polite, be humble, be soft spoken. If you “rage”, it makes you look worse, and may come back to bite you in the behind. Let them admit their own error, and fix it. Allow them to feel guilty about the error. Much more valuable to you than making them feel embarrased or “caught”.</p>
<p>My son, a prolific writer, experienced something similar at his school, but it wasn’t regarding classwork, it was regarding writing for outside of school that he voluntarily gave to a trusted teacher for feedback. Unless the accuser has some kind of support or basis for the allegation, one cannot go around making statements like this without the risk of being sued for slander. We could prove son wrote everything - it’s all on his computer, with prior versions saved. His outside tutor also worked with him directly on the writing. So we could easily prove his innocence while the accuser had no basis. Ultimately, the principal intervened and bent over backwards trying to make things right for my son. Make sure you get a statement in writing from your principal stating that the school agrees you are the author and the work is yours, especially if any emails were sent around documenting this issue. I’d also find out who all was informed of the accusation (teachers and counselors) and make sure the principal clears your name with them as well. Our principal went as far as to commit that if any of the people who knew of the accusation repeated it to anyone else, it would be grounds for termination. This type of accusation can be truly devastating to a student within their school community. </p>
<p>My son was devastated by this whole experience, especially by the teacher that was his trusted mentor. We demanded an apology which she refused to give - we have no idea why. Sadly, it’s easier for some teachers to believe that students plagiarize than to believe they can actually write that well. </p>
<p>Please let us know how your meeting with the principal goes tomorrow.</p>
<p>Thanks for the tips guys. I’ll let you know for sure how it goes tomorrow.</p>
<p>Sportsmom42, it’s so sad to hear about your story, but glad it all worked out in the end. I can’t stand teachers such as the one your son had.</p>
<p>What is making me worried is that my English teacher told me by the end of the meeting that now most of my teachers think i’m likely to plagiarize because of this incident. This troubles me a lot because it’s certainly something i’d never do and something that will harm me when applying to colleges. Oh well, we’ll see tomorrow.</p>
<p>So today I bring both copies of the projects to my English teacher. I was so mad that I didn’t say anything, simply told her to look at it and make sure she thought i was a cheater.</p>
<p>So then, during break in the hallway I see the principal and call him to have a conversation. Luckily, my brother was walking by and he tagged along too. After around 40 minutes of talking (and missing 30 minutes of boring Art class :D), he agreed that it was unfair and that he said the image he has of me is one of the best ones at the school, and even mentioned that he would write me a recommendation letter if i took his elective next year (which I will).</p>
<p>At the end of the day, I walk into the English office and ask my teacher, “well, am i a cheater?” She tells me it’s all good. I then tell her I was deeply insulted by this, because it is completely unfair that i’m accused by something so serious as this with no real evidence. She fought a little, but then sincerely apologized (to my surprise). I then asked if I could know who was the other teacher was. She said no, yet took a quick glance at my brother’s teacher from last year, confirming my suspicions. </p>
<p>Glad this is all resolved. The best feeling was walking into that English office and having all teachers look at me, then watch me leave as an innocent man, proving how two of their faculty were childish (to say the least).</p>
<p>Try to take her apology to heart and forgive her for listening to the other teacher.
Take the high road and don’t use this unfortunate situation to further beat up the teacher, principal, and school.
You were innocent and now you can hold you head up high with your integrity intact.</p>