HIT: SEC :Consequences for cheating, plagarizing, etc.

[Terri Lent <Tlent@AOL.COM>]

LM_NETters,

As promised, here's my hit. It appears that a few of you have the same problem
we do -- it's wrong, we need to do something, but punishments that fit the
crime are not really punishments.  My faculty certainly has something to think
about.  Thanks to everyone who responded.

Terri Lent
Manassas Park HS
Manassas Park, Va.
tlent@aol.com

-----------------------
We ought not to gloat, first of all. We ought not to seek to justify ourselves
in punishing the learner, or leveling consequences, either, as queer as that
might seem to some.  While our genuine interest remains in educating and
assisting the learner, we will know to work to guide the learner to correctly
complete the work, and/or we will respectfully (intelligently and humanely)
grant them voice in expressing how/why the assignment appeared not to be worth
their time and effort, or (seemingly) within their capabilities, to complete
as directed.  We will be committed, and remain committed, to our ideals as
teaching professionals--to help, and to teach.  Right?

        The idea that we may--and even should--toss aside learners for having
made mistakes, or exhibited errors in judgment, is akin to feeling we have the
right and even the obligation to target birds, because, although they offer
much more to the world than melodious songs, they also sometimes shit on us.
What dodos this would make us.
--------------
Nothing!  There are no consquences, only rewards!  The district requires a
teacher to give the student another chance on the same or similar assignment.
They say this is a punishment, since the student must do the assignment over,
but I say it is a reward, since it gives the student twice as long as honest
students to do the assignment.  The only one punished, as I see it, is the
teacher, who now has to grade, with much greater vigilence, a second
assignment, on top of all the other paperwork.   Grrrrrr.......
------------------
I don't have to deal with this very much, but it seems to me that the student
needs to demonstrated the skill being taught (paraphrasing, etc.) in some way.
------------------
At our school, the penalty is left up to the classroom teachers.  But the
general concensus seems to be a zero for the assignment, no matter what it is.
------------------
For students who are caught cheating & plaguiariszing:  They are sent to the
Student Discipline Committee.  This is a committee made up of 8 students
(chosen from a pool of about 30 trained students), the offender's advisor, the
dean of students, the offender's dean, and the teacher.  The case is discussed
and the students give the dean of students a recomendation of punishment.
That usually includes a Sat. detention and
essays based on querries about honesty etc.  The dean of students is not
required to use the recomended punishment, but usually does.  The Committe may
also prescribe what may happen if the offender is caught cheating again.

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