<p>I think the point of this incident was that the teacher was being unnecessarily inappropriate when she caught her cheating. Everyone else was still taking a timed exam, there’s no need to go off preaching while they’re on the clock. Second, that was not the time nor the place to be “scolding” her for cheating; just take her packets up, ask her to put her cell phone down, and whisper to her that her test has been invalidated and that she can either go to a different room or sit quietly. Lastly, I do not understand in the slightest why you would continue to shame her when she starts crying. I don’t really care whether or not the teacher “believed” it, that’s inappropriate, unprofessional, and downright mean. Not allowing someone to cheat is one thing, but being cruel to someone who clearly isn’t retaliating is going over the line to me. </p>
<p>I don’t see how some people can’t realize that for some students, you can’t put them down any harder than they put down themselves… It’s seems in this case Omotayo already knew the gravity of what she did once she was caught, and her beginning to cry meant that she knew she had nothing to excuse herself for. Adding insult to injury isn’t the proper way to get a point across. This article shows how the pressure we put on high-achieving students can kill. A classmate of mine killed herself for reasons like this and it was devastating to me how people washed over it because “she was just mental in the head, it’s not like we could have done something for her”. We shouldn’t make kids feel like they have to strive to be perfect, just that they should put their all into everything that they do. It’s a big difference in outlook, but students would be better off for it.</p>