<p>Need your advice: My high school sophomore son was charged with plagiarism today. The school is allowing him to re-write the paper for a lower grade maximum because some passages were not paraphrased or reworded properly. His record will now include his one act of plagiarism. He admits that he was wrong and wants to correct his mistake. At the same time, he is totally devastated. He feels that he will never be accepted by the University of Alabama due to this mistake. His record has been perfect until today: GPA 3.9, five honors classes, excellent extracurricular activities ranging from VP of a school club to varsity sports, a class officer, lots of community service hours, leader in his religious group, and a part-time job. Is getting into the University of Alabama impossible now? What should I tell him?</p>
<p>I can’t speak for UA, but over the years I have worked with several talented and bright students who have been disciplined or expelled from top flight private schools for plagiarism, vandalism, drugs (including dealing), theft, terroristic threatening, truancy, alcohol abuse, and . . . well, you get the idea.</p>
<p>Each of these students got into college, including Ivies and the U.S. Naval Academy. The common denominator in their success/rehabilitation was that they came clean to the colleges about their transgressions and submitted essays that authentically expressed remorse for their actions and explained, as well as documented, what they learned from the experience and the actions they’d taken to remedy their problems/prevent recurrence.</p>
<p>I would suggest you contact UA Admissions anonymously and ask their guidance on how to address this matter. Best of luck to you and your son going forward. Even the best people are not immune from lapses in judgment or serious mistakes. If he handles this well (and given his resume why wouldn’t he?), he will emerge a stronger, better man.</p>
<p>Thank you malanai for your insights. My son clearly wants to be that “better man” that you described in your entry. He is so willing to do whatever it takes to gain his teacher’s trust again. I truly appreciate your suggestions.</p>
<p>You are most welcome. This is a detour, not a dead end.</p>
<p>Since your son is a sophomore, he has plenty of time to demonstrate that he’s learned his lesson. If he keeps his nose clean, then it shouldn’t be a problem.</p>
<p>At some point (senior year), you might approach the school and request that it be stricken from his record or at least not report it. Some schools will do that when a kid has shown that he’s turned things around. </p>
<p>If you’re certain that it will get reported, then having the GC include a note that your son learned his lesson, was very contrite, and has not repeated the offense should do it.</p>
<p>there is a very good chance that this will not actually show up on his “permanent record” that is sent to colleges either. In many places, the threat of something being on a permanent record is just that, a threat. Not sure how your school handles these things. If he was not officially suspended, there is a good chance this will never show up. I’m not sure I would share that with your son though, the idea that he has “one strike”, may help him stay on the right path! </p>
<p>However, he is learning this lesson at a good time in his life. As a Soph, he has the time to correct his mistakes and to learn and show that this was just an error. And make sure that it does not happen again with a teacher that is not as forgiving or understanding. </p>
<p>You may want to join one of those websites/programs that you son can run his papers through to check for plagiarism red flags that he can fix before he submits to the teacher. Some of these kids do not plagiarize intentionally. These sites can help them learn.</p>
<p>Along the lines of what vlines said, I just recently had a discussion with the head of our high school regarding permanent records. He said there is a lot of misconception about permanent records, permanent files, etc. In our school’s case, it is just the transcript. So unless it is somehow noted on the transcript, it wouldn’t be in a student’s record. Having said that, I have no idea if that is how a disciplinary event is usually recorded.</p>
<p>At my son’s high school students receive a citizenship grade every semester. Everyone starts with an A. Cutting class might lower it to a C. Plagiarism would lower it to an F. In either case the grade would appear on the student’s official transcript and they would have to explain the anomaly on their college applications or risk having it interpreted without the benefit of input from the student (not a good idea in my opinion).</p>
<p>That is interesting, Malanai…nothing like that here. We are more like Lattelady stated, transcript only. And that may or may not show unexcused absences on it.</p>
<p>What can I tell you, vlines? The school was founded by missionaries in the 19th century. Hard core. :)</p>
<p>True that most things that go into a school file do NOT end up being sent to colleges. </p>
<p>It’s not as if a HS sends an entire file to the college.</p>
<p>Many schools simply send a transcript, which usually does not show things like this (Malanai’s school is an exception). Some GC’s send a “counselor report” (which is usually a “check box report” and it’s really up to the GC whether they take the time to include a mention of the infraction. Many GCs will not include such infractions if they think it’s a one-time thing and it was awhile ago and the kid was remorseful. Any clear-thinking GC isn’t going to want to ruin a student’s future over a mistake that does not define the child.</p>
<p>My kids’ private high school’s transcript only shows a “year end grade”…no semester grades, no absenses, no tardies…just classes and a year-end grade and a Weighted GPA. Period.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your advice.</p>