I just don’t know where else to ask for advice and I am so upset.
My high school sophomore is now in trouble for a plagiarism issue. Problem is, she didn’t plagiarize, someone else plagiarized her paper.
Short version. We received a phone call this week that a paper she did and handed in weeks ago was plagiarized by her good friend. My DD had no idea this happened. The friend had her paper due this week and she didn’t do it till the day before it was due. Panicked and she was overwhelmed and didn’t understand the directions. She called my DD (because she is her friend) via FaceTime upset and needing help. My DD explained the directions and prompts to her. The friend was still confused so my daughter read what she wrote to show her how in depth she needed to be as well as how much she should write. The friend ended up copying her essay. How much of it is unclear, it was based on the same book and topic and the same prompt had to be answered. We got a phone call from my dd teacher about it and she explained that my daughter was now in trouble. I then called the girls parents and they were very upset and said yes that their daughter copied my daughters paper. They said she was very stressed and only had a day to complete the assignment and well, she just messed up. The friend called my DD and apologized, cried hysterically and took full blame and responsibility for it and even put into writing that my DD had no knowledge this was happening.
Because of school policy, the school is saying both girls have to redo the paper and only get 50% credit for their grade. My daughter is devastated. Because there is barely any grades for marking period 3, she would have her letter grade dropped two levels. The marking period is over so there is no way to bring it up. She also has a mark on her discipline record that states “academic dishonesty”. Her grade being lowered by 2 levels means she will end up with a mid-low C for the class (they are on block scheduling so she can not bring it up). This will then lower her overall GPA down below what is needed to apply for NHS (something she really wanted) and well lets be honest, a C doesn’t look great for college applications. She didn’t give the girl a copy of her paper and she had no knowledge the girl would plagerize her hard work. I do not know what to do at this point. I do not think this is fair to my daughter who has worked so so hard. She isn’t naturally gifted, she has to work super hard for her grades and she has a very good work ethic. Her clear downfall is that she helped someone. Yes she is very upset with her friend, thats a whole other issue.
I don’t need any negativity right now so I ask that you please be respectful and tell me what you would do now.
i would just be honest. go in person and talk to an administrator and tell them your situation - being honest and open is the best route. if not, she will have space to explain it in her college applications. best of luck to you and I hope everything goes well!
Thanks. We have done that. My husband and I had a meeting with the department head and also wrote a long email explaining what happened. Our DD also wrote an email to her teacher as well as the department head explaining her side. The other girl also wrote an email as well as her parents taking full responsibility and saying my daughter knew nothing about this and shouldn’t be held responsible.
The school called today and they will not budge. They said their policy is that students who have their work copied and “lend” out their work are held to the same punishment. Since my daughter read her parts of what she wrote then that is considered “lending” even if verbal.
seems like a tough situation, i think your next best option would be to explain it in college apps as the common app gives space for additional info. i personally can’t think of any other solutions, I hope someone on here could help. but honestly, it may seem like a big deal right now, but in the long run, you will look back on the situation and think nothing of it… try to stay positive!
thanks! Yea unfortunately because my daughter did nothing wrong and is so upset, I can not let this go and have to fight for what is right. I just don’t know what else to do expect going the legal route.
Thats what I don’t understand. It isn’t like this is a he said/she said thing. This other girl took 100% responsibility. Mine is actually going to suffer more as they have different teachers and my daughters teacher weighted this assignment very heavy so with a low grade it will bring her grade down.
I would recommend you go beyond the department head - if public school the principal or straight to the head of the school district. If a private school - go to school head and if not resolved I would send an email to the board and ask for a disciplinary meeting.
This is an unfortunate incident and your daughter learned not to share her work even verbally - she does need to take responsibility for that error in judgement - but the punishment does not fit the “crime” and I would recommend escalating.
Lastly, is this policy in the student handbook or vary by teacher and subject?
Did the girl just use your daughter’s ideas, or did she copy it word for word? The reason that I ask, is that unless your daughter was dictating her paper over the phone to her friend, slowly, as the friend was writing it down, it seems as if it would be very difficult to plagiarize word for word if something was read to a person, especially if it were only sections, and not the entire paper.
Even if she had given the girl a copy of her paper to demonstrate how she had approached the topic, and how in-depth she had gone into the analysis, I wouldn’t necessarily consider that as cheating on your daughter’s part. This seems to me to have been entirely on the other girl’s part. After all, who would ever have anticipated that the girl would have been stupid enough to submit that very same paper, in the same school?
I knew of a situation in a public high school where an autistic 9th grader was viciously and repeatedly bullied by two seniors, partners in crime, to the point where they were locking the child out of the classroom, and stealing the child’s materials, to try to bully the kid out of the class and the program. Not that the 9th grader ever said a word (most bullied kids won’t, and especially autistic ones), but a parent found out, and reported it. And guess what happened to those princely seniors? NOTHING, because their parents got lawyers involved. By school policy, they should have received ten day suspensions, with all their colleges notified, but instead they got nothing, and the colleges were not notified. The school district realized that they would have a lawsuit on their hands from the parents of the seniors, so they caved. And of course the parents of the autistic child were not going to publicize it, since they didn’t want to bring more grief and misery on their child.
It sounds as if your daughter did NOTHING wrong. You’ve gone to the administration, tried to explain all this. Unless there’s something you’re not telling us, this is completely unjust. If you can’t get this undone on your own, it’s time to get a lawyer involved. Your daughter did not conspire to help her classmate commit plagiary. She only tried to explain to a classmate what level of rigor was required for the assignment. She should not be punished for this.
Any student who lends his/her work is subject to the same consequences. If the assignment is valued to be more than 10% of the total points for a marking period, a student will be permitted to resubmit that assignment for half-credit – with two days of being notified by the teacher that the assignment is plagiarized. (This is not applicable to tests and quizzes). Incidents of academic dishonesty will be reported to the discipline office.
Thank you. I have no reason to not have full disclosure. And as I said, the girl already admitted what happened and took full responsibility. She as well as her parents wrote to the department head. I was copied on this so I know they are being truthful. School is saying that yes both girls stories lined up but they both said my daughter read from her paper which constitutes “lending” it out. I share my emails all the time with my friends before I send them. It’s my writing and I’m legally aloud to do that. It does not give someone the rights to steal my words and claim as their own.
Since this afternoon I have been in touch with someone on the school board as well as the super intendant of the school district. He is sending me a disciplinary appeal Monday morning. My fear is they will just try to dig the heels and not budge.
Oh and I didn’t read the girls essay. The supervisor said they put it through some program and it was copied. They said it was very similar. It was about the same book and same prompt so I am sure there are naturally going to be similarities but I would also assume there was word for word copies since the student had such remorse over what she did.
My only question is how the friend was able to plagiarize when you daughter simply read her essay. Was it over the phone? Did the friend actually see the essay Was it e-mailed? If your daughter just read it at normal speed, how did the friend manage to copy it? Did she take notes? How? Did she read the whole thing or just part of it?
Intent is considered at the college level, in situations like this. And usually there is a warning first, with education involved. This response is severe.
I would hire a lawyer, frankly. I wouldn’t bother going up the chain to the school board, before hiring a lawyer.
Your daughter should know that helping a friend by sharing her work borders on dishonesty. It really does. Regardless of her intent. She could have talked in general terms about the assignment without using her own work as an example.
However, I still think you should talk to a lawyer. I do not think grades should be affected and I do not think dishonesty should be on her record. The friend is another matter.
So both girls said my daughter read her what she wrote. They were on FaceTime. Both said my daughter was doing her own homework at the time for other classes and would stop and clarify when the girl didn’t understand something and then explain and read what she wrote to show the girl how she answered and how much she wrote. It isn’t unusual for them to be on FaceTime doing homework “together” since the pandemic happened. Mine truly thought she was helping a friend, she never would have thought the friend would steal her words.
Reality is whether she read it or plastered it all over her walls, it was the other girls choice to plagiarize.
Of course even at 15 mine said “the teachers tell us to peer edit all the time. So if I give someone my paper to peer edit then I am ok. But if they decide to copy it, then I am in trouble”.
I feel sick over this and my daughter is a complete mess. Doesn’t even want to go back to school. She’s upset, she is embarrassed and if her grade drops that much she will be defeated to the point she won’t even bother.
And yes my daughter 100% now realizes not to help anyone and while I believe her that she was trying to help and would never ever consent or be ok with being copied, the punishment just seems extreme when there was no intent.
This seems extreme to me too. Kids collaborate all the time and you have the friend admitting her guilt. I’m glad you talked to someone on the school board and can appeal. That’s where I would have gone next.
Oh and as if it couldn’t be more stressful. My daughters teacher decided to announce to her other period class that she apologized for being late as she was dealing with a plagiarism situation in her other class. So now my daughter feels like everyone is talking about it.
Just to put some distance on this, my S had a similar situation as an 8th grader. Got a 0 on a test since he “helped” other kids with a test after he took it. Was a disaster at the time, thought everyone was talking about him, made it impossible to get into honors in high school, etc. And now we forgot it even happened and made no difference in the long run. These things make such a big difference when they happen but in the long run mean nothing. This years grades will be so variable due to COVID differences that a one semester C should be easy to explain away in an otherwise stellar record.
Yes we as adults know that things will pass. It does for us anyway, come down to principle. She didn’t do anything wrong. Their policy needs to be changed. It should have escalated to this point. If all parties involved said it was the fault of one person and that person admitted fault and took 100% responsibility then it’s should be clear that mine had no knowledge of this. If we don’t fight for what is right then what lessons get learned?
I never even thought of the peer editing issue. I think that it is reasonable to make an attempt right away with the school board and the superintendent, but if that doesn’t bring an immediate and satisfactory resolution, lawyer. I’d start looking now for the right one.