saw someone cheating today in my biology exam ... torn.

<p>If the OP saw the girl, couldn't the teacher accuse him of cheating, I mean how else would've he saw her cheating if he was looking at his paper the whole time?</p>

<p>The teacher very well could have thought he was cheating….or he might have already been done with his test. I am guessing that if the OP was accused of cheating, he would then run and grab the girl’s pen in order to prove that she was the one really cheating. This OP values getting people in trouble or teaching people lessons, instead of letting people live their lives.</p>

<p>I think if it was serious, the girl would turn herself in to begin with</p>

<p>guilty conscience</p>

<p>Alright here is the deal. No way in hell everyone here is honest. I am sure someone has told a lie once in their life. Now being a totally honest person doesnt mean you are a good person. A good person has to achieve a balance. I find it extremely annoying to see people like you come on these forums and post about these things. You think you are so honest. However there are plenty of honest but not good people. I am not condoning cheating, however instead of ranting about it here shouldnt you be more concerned about the girl instead of her actions? I mean you stated yourself she is phychologically stressed to the extreme. </p>

<p>To put it simply:</p>

<p>Turn her in makes you an *******.</p>

<p>Talk to her, help her out with her problems while giving her a hint you saw her cheat while not telling on her to make her more stressed, that makes you a good person.</p>

<p>I kind of agree with that. I mentioned a similar statement earlier.</p>

<p>Honestly, I think jnesse made this story up. I find it hard to imagine that someone would really act the way that he has. </p>

<p>For example, his first post says, “Under normal circumstances, I'd be in my guidance councellor's office right now ... but .... what do you guys think?” </p>

<p>Why would he post something like this on a thread? Why would he mention that he saw somebody cheating on here? I find his choice of words hard to take seriously. I hope that everybody in the UK doesn’t handle problems like this.</p>

<p>i keep getting the same feeling.</p>

<p>Wow if the OP is for real then he is a loser. You should not turn in anybody unless they are directly affecting someone else by cheating. I doubt this girl is anywhere close to affecting someone's rank significantly, so there should be no reason to turn her in regardless of her family background. The cheating will catch up to her eventually, it's not your responsibility or business to affect someone else's life that way. It is the teacher's responsibility to check for cheating, while it is the student's responsibility to keep his/her eyes on their paper and focus on their exam, not what other students are doing. Sounds like you enjoy "teaching people lessons" since you would normally be in the counselors office if her circumstances were different. You're not changing the world by turning anybody in, just let it go in future circumstances. I was in AP biology myself this year, and I saw cheating during nearly every test. Hell, I even cheated myself a couple of times. A kid I know who got accepted ED into Brown asked for my entire scantron when he was making up a test, and I gave it to him because it's useless being a prick for no reason. Cheating reflect's one's academic character, not their true character. It will catch up to the student eventually and the consequences will be greater then. Let it happen. Don't be a snitch.</p>

<p>^Watch what you call people.</p>

<p>Anyway, the amoral nature of this concept really clears up some images I had on CCers. </p>

<p>"If it doesn't hurt you, don't worry about it!"</p>

<p>"It's only cheating if you get caught!"</p>

<p>"BFD! Honor codes don't mean ****!"</p>

<p>"What a loser! You'd get whooped!"</p>

<p>"Don'r rat her out, you sicko! Cheating's alright if she's hurt!"</p>

<p>"It's only a MOCK test!" (which is everything in the OP's country).</p>

<p>Okay, granted the cheater has been having a really hard time, but I don't think cheating is necessary, I just think it's an easy way out. My father went crazy this year--had a seizure, tossed himself onto a speeding car, got into three accidents, on four different pills, each of which is three times as strong as an average dose, lost his job, went to a mental hospital, came back, still getting into thousands of dollars worth of trouble? You think this doesn't bother me? I lost my grandfather as well in the past year, as well as a cousin who was only eleven. Yet I worked through it all and pulled off a 4.0 this last semester. I'm not the strongest of individuals, I'm just determined, and if you have the resources, you can do it. I see people cheat all around me, what bothers me about a lot of these posts isn't the fact that you want to cut her slack, it's the fact that a lot of you seem to think it's just or excusable. It's really not, and it almost never is. All this pragmatic stuff about how it's petty or disrupts the learning process by being reported has to be swept aside for a minute because dealing with it woudln't take that much. The core question: Is it right? No. Or anyone could make any number of justifications for it. Just my two cents.</p>

<p>EDIT: And after reading some posts here, I think that one or two posters here could stand to show a little bit more maturity, eh?</p>

<p>
[quote]
jpod was right; i think youre due to get rolled.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>And you're due for a dose of reality/moral compass.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Turn her in makes you an *******.</p>

<p>Talk to her, help her out with her problems while giving her a hint you saw her cheat while not telling on her to make her more stressed, that makes you a good person.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>The poster's already done that, according to the last page.</p>

<p>Good job jnesse. You totally did the right thing.</p>

<p>"How wrong of me to have faith and keep my believe that this society is composed of at least the basic morals right?"</p>

<p>After what you posted previously you have the audacity to invoke the concept of morality?</p>

<p>You did the right thing Jesse. You could have ruined the girl's life and it may have been because she simply made a mistake. I made a dumb mistake once when I was 17 and almost (literally) lost my life. It was truly a momentary lapse in judgment because the actions of another person put me into a situation that I didn't have the life experience/maturity to handle. As much as some like to think otherwise, 16 and 17 year-olds are still children who are learning, growing and maturing. It's not ok to cheat, but absent proof of a pattern, you don't destroy someone's life over a mistake. You're both clearly nice people and you should be proud of yourself.</p>

<p>What if the papers on her pen had been poems, prayers or words of wisdom?</p>

<p>Yeah, I'm really proud of you. That showed a lot of character. </p>

<p>As far as cheating goes though, i would never turn someone in for it unless they cheated to get the highest grade or score in something and then tried to rub it in everyone's face and stuff like that. I came very close to having something like that happen to me. Last year we were taking the PSATs and I saw someone going back and fill in answers they hadnt finished during the break. When the scores came back, me and some other girl got the highest scores in our school on it, and the girl was only one point away from our score. If she had beaten our score and then tried to shove it in my face I most definitely would have turned her in.</p>

<p>I guess what you did was right but she can get slack form the school not you. The honor code should still be respected and why the hell would anyone kick your ass?</p>

<p>unless she does, everyone else would care about their own exams. its probably too late to turn her in but if you wait to do it then next time they will be like how sure are you. i have never had to turn anyone in because we have zero tolerance for it here but if i did on a projected test then i would have to. you are almost morally obligated to because if her mom developed cancer than she can take a break not cheat.</p>

<p>Would you still turn this girl in if she were a guy who was 6 ft 4 and weighed 220lbs? I think you might not be so interested in sticking to the honors code and turning him in.</p>

<p>I'm going to go ahead and assume that this person would not tell the 6'4" guy that he turned him in, or even the girl for that matter</p>

<p>just a thought</p>

<p>the kids saw scraps of paper on a desk...she was PROBABLY cheating, but it would be impossible to prove, and to turn her in because you saw little piece of scrap paper...come on. I hate cheating as much as the next person, but sometimes practicality, compassion, and reality need to be thought about</p>

<p>Hey, Mr. Principal, Becky had little pieces of paper on her desk during the test...</p>

<p>What is the principal, or whomever, supposed to do with that?</p>

<p>Becky, did you have cheat sheet scraps of paper on your desk, cause Billy saw them?</p>

<p>No I did not...and why was he looking at my desk when I was taking the test...was he cheating off of me?</p>

<p>Come on, if DURING the test, the student went and told the teacher and turned in the girl, and the teacher caught her in the act, well, that would be one thing, but after, with no evidence, etc and the teacher not seeing anything, what proof do you have?</p>

<p>"Moral" obligation aside, what would the most likely result be for turning this girl in...no proof, just I saw her cheating cause I was looking at her desk while she was taking the test...the teacher saw nothing, there is no proof</p>

<p>That is tough to hear for purist, but nothing is black and white and simple</p>

<p>DId the school do much to help this girl during a very rough period of time, did they do anything to cut her some slack...it goes both ways when it comes to honor and morals</p>

<p>I'll still maintain whatever moral compass I have, and I partially agree that ratting out the culprit would have been not-so-pragmatic, but what I'm against is the posters that tried to make cheating seem less wrong or devalue 'honor codes' and the like--I just find it amoral. (I won't point out any posters in particular).</p>

<p>But I'm glad the OP chose a good course of action, I think it was the best thing to do in this particular situation.</p>

<p>snitches get stitches.</p>