Rescinded? help!

Applying to College
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<p>My friend got accepted to JHU (ED) and well, something happened :/</p>

<p>so she has a friend (junior) who she had been helping out a lot with hw. she sent him her past hw/etc to help him out b/c he has a lot on his hands.
and well, he left the computer on and forgot to log off, and so a teacher saw and decided to look through EVERY SINGLE EMAIL they sent to each other. the junior kid got a WF (withdraw/fail) for his class; my friend has to notify JHU.
the thing is, she never cheated to benefit herself, and all her stellar grades she received were never unfairly received. she never cheated her way into JHU.
she does not have senioritis.
she currently has As (APs, etc) in all her class except a 89 in her AP Lit, and AP Spanish Lang idk what she has.
she talked this over w/ the counselor and he's not much of a help. she talked w/ her ap gov teacher and he said he'd write a rec letter for her b/c he knows her and all.</p>

<p>so first of all, does the school adminsitration have the right to look through her email w/ that kid w/o their permission?
secondly, what are her chances of getting rescinded.
please give honest opinions.</p>

<p>thank you!</p>

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<p>Your friend should not contact JHU until the school is notified about this breach of privacy. Now if the teacher found homework papers lying on a desk that’s a whole different story, but it the e-mails are all she she has then you make sure this teacher knows the legal situation she is getting into by getting your friend involved in this.</p>

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<p>thank you so much for the responses. so she did some research on some of the school policy and well it states the following:</p>

<p>“users should not expect privacy through email, internet usage, or created documents. [XX unified school district] will monitor individual use of all technological systems as needed”</p>

<p>so the argument she makes is this:
“ok the argument i can make is that WHEN he (the friend) used comp at school it was for reasonable purposes (getting power point from email) BUT all the document sending or what they call ‘cheating’ is all done OUTSIDE of school hours. on personal computer.
initially, he did not cheat via email AT school. when it quotes ‘[XX unified school district] will monitor individual use of all technological systems as needed’ it was UNNECESSARY to dig up ALL the emails. they even dug up our official CHAIN. which had like 99 emails.”</p>

<p>and monitoring means looking at what HAPPENED AT THAT MOMENT,
what they did was FISHING, DIGGING through.
another weird thing is at our school there have been many cheating cases but usually first offense is let off w/ a warning or saturday school. but for some reason, they’re making it such a big deal for my friend & her friend. i mean, i know a situation where this guy stole a test for a friend, and he confessed, etc, and they let him off w/ a warning. and my friend and her friend were interrogated separately and did not have any conflicting info – they told the truth.
’
so does she have hope to get out of this situation somehow?
are her reasons reasonable?
and would bringning up past cases and comparing it to hers help as well?</p>

<p>and also, she asks how such a situation as this would impact her financial appeal?
things happened so she ended up receiving less financial aid than she was originally offered. so she’s wondering if this kind of occurrence would decrease her chances of receiving the financial appeal.</p>

<p>thank you again!</p>

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<p>oh and I added this information too.</p>

<p>and monitoring means looking at what HAPPENED AT THAT MOMENT,
what they did was FISHING, DIGGING through.
another weird thing is at our school there have been many cheating cases but usually first offense is let off w/ a warning or saturday school. but for some reason, they’re making it such a big deal for my friend & her friend. i mean, i know a situation where this guy stole a test for a friend, and he confessed, etc, and they let him off w/ a warning. and my friend and her friend were interrogated separately and did not have any conflicting info – they told the truth.</p>

<p>i personally think… stealing a test is a bigger offense. :confused: and yet he was let off.</p>

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<p>Even if it is only help, it’s not a good policy to have people that freely give out copies of their homework to fellow classmates.</p>

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<p>Did they use school’s email address? My kids do. If so, the school may have the right to search. My company has access to all of our emails. </p>

<p>I am not a lawyer … I know if a police officer suspects there may be illegal substance in a car, he may search the car without a warrant. I think the reason is because it is a moving vehicle, by the time a warrant is obtained the vehicle may not be available for inspection In this case, the teacher was not on a fishing expedition. He happened to see it when the monitor was open. He needed to do further investigation quickly before the evidence was destroyed.
If your school has honor code, what your friend did was in violation of the honor code. At my kids school, there would be a disciplinar action and it would stay on the record. A few kids have been expelled and colleges have been notified. </p>

<p>I would find out if this would be on your friend’s record and if Jhu would be notified. If the school is going to take a hard stand, I would try to negotiate with them, and also get a lawyer.</p>

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<p>It sounds like your friend has failed to get the message, in a school where you state there have been other cases of cheating, that ‘help’ of this sort is a violation of the school’s policy. If you haven’t read the e-mails yourself, you don’t know what the school officials are reacting to. It sounds (I don’t think anyone on this board knows the facts) like the girl wasn’t guilty of TOO much, the boy guilty of more. Where will this girl draw the line in the future? Can cheating like this happen if there isn’t a hard working student who is willing to give her work to a selected ‘friend’? A smart student should realize she’s benefiting one person unfairly. If the school officials seem to be treating this case harshly PERHAPS there’s a reason. As for suing, it just makes me shake my head. “I got caught cheating - it’s your fault.” If she wants to escalate the matter and has money to hire a lawyer, maybe that’s the way to go. I would hope the parties involved could come to a reasonable resolution on their own. I think of all the kids who work hard on their own and it bothers me to think that someone gets ahead because they’ve passed off someone else’s work as their own. It bothers me even more to think that my doctor, banker or lawyer may have gotten where (s)he is by doing that kind of thing. </p>

<p>I can hear the argument: but she only did it this once, she should be given a second chance. I think of the students who never did it and maybe don’t shine as brightly because they had personal standards that didn’t allow for cheating. I also think things work out. Unless there’s more to the story, JH won’t rescind. I do think it’s a matter of interest to them. What if she’s involved in something similar at college and her high school never tipped off the university?</p>

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<p>I actually think JHu would consider rescinding if it’s on the student’s record and is notified. Harvard did. My D friend was caught cheating (what your friend did was cheating) was expelled, but because they were big donor to the school, the school agreed to leave the reason out of his transcript.</p>

<p>Just did a search, JHU does have an honor code, which means any kind of cheating would be taken more seriously.</p>

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<p>There is a lesson to be learned here. However, I see, peer collaboration, peer tutoring, peer advising. </p>

<p>I would not say anything to JMU and the other boys parents need to be his advocates and get the course reinstated.</p>

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<p>Thank you everyone for your opinions.
I’m so sorry for giving you guys essays to read but my friend really appreciates the help and commentary you guys are giving.</p>

<p>oldfort: it was a gmail account and you know how when you want to view emails you have to actually click on “view the rest” --kind of link to actually view all the email exchanges. </p>

<p>okay so basically, here’s what happened. the teacher specifically opened the internet explorer for him, and the kid logged into his email account on hte teacher’s computer b/c he had to present his powerpoint presentation. but he closed the window (with the intention to log off) but gmail doesn’t log off automatically just by closing the window.
and so, obviously, the teacher went to gmail site and idk what happened but i guess she saw that it was logged onto his email account so i’m assuming she clicked on “view inbox”(or whatever the link is). and the thing is the email he opened was sent by my friend to him (b/c my friend & he are on each other’s account (and it’s an account only between them too (btw, they’re in a relationship)). </p>

<p>and the thing is, the first message in the email was in korean and the teacher’s white. and even then she could not have noticed it WITHOUT the intent of LOOKING… she should have no reason to suspect anything. anyway, she must have scrolled down and looked through it to find the email. the hw “the one” that caused the whole thing/the investigation is actually 7 emails down. </p>

<p>and since she’s a teacher she probably uses her school account. even if she DOes have a gmail account, she should have logged off instead of looking into his inbox. and the log off button is on the top right, you know? so why did she look through his email?</p>

<p>idk if this helps but she explicitly shows her dislike towards the kid b/c of past issues. It’s very evident because when the teacher is talking to another student she’s smiling and the moment she sees him and talks to him, she has a tone and says “what?”
I don’t think a teacher should be like that to any student. it’s very unprofessional. (just my personal opinion)</p>

<p>I understand that she has a lesson to learn as well, but he has a lot of emotional trouble and family troubles. His mom drives a long distance back and forth everyday for work and his dad’s business isn’t going well. My friend, being his gf and all, felt bad and since she was a second semester senior, done with everything and all, wanted to help him out. My friend does believe what she did was wrong but she feels like the teacher is also at a fault </p>

<p>But the main issue is that although what she did was wrong I think it would be fair if just that assignment grade was impacted b/c this seems very technical.
Not only that, but it seems that a lot of this sparked from her biased view of him. there are plenty of evidence and testimonies that can prove the teacher has something against him. so the initial suspicion was NOT unbiased.</p>

<p>and when my friend was talking to the teacher + counselor, the counselor said “the hw isn’t the only problem, you guys have an unhealthy relationship”
so she’s commenting on their private relationship. (btw, I know both of them and their relationship isn’t that bad. it’s just that they had arguments and all (& the kid is pretty emotionally unstable) but a lot of couples go through dramas like that and make up.)</p>

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<p>bumpppppppppp</p>