CA - Honors class boots copycat; parents sue district despite signed pledge

[wfgodot]

Parents SUE school for kicking their son out of honours English class after he copied classmate's homework

The parents of a Northern California high school sophomore are suing the school district for kicking the teenager out of an honours class because he cheated.
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The student’s father, Jack Berghouse, and his wife filed a lawsuit last week against the school district claiming their son's due process rights were violated.

MercuryNews.com reported that the teen was tossed from the class for copying another student's homework.

The ‘Academic Honesty Pledge’ clearly stated that cheating is ground for removal from any and all advanced placement courses.

Mrs Berghouse and her son both signed the agreement.
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The parents offered several other punishment suggestions instead of banishment from the advanced placement course, including working as a teacher’s assistant after school for the rest of the semester.
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[Sequoia High School District Superintendent James Lianides wrote] that if plagiarism and cheating were tolerated by the high school, it would devalue the school’s reputation and the student’s diploma.

more at Daily Mail link above

 

[eileenhawkeye]

If the school kicks out students from honors classes for copying homework, there will be no one in them. Seriously, I was in mostly honors and AP classes and I don't know anyone who always copied HW but sometimes you forget....and people don't mind helping out.

 

[Disguiseduser0308]

Well, they signed the agreement that cheating meant removal from the AP classes/program. Here's a novel idea: why not accept that your child was caught cheating? Frivolous lawsuit, imo.

 

[Angels_Not_Forgotten]

The point of AP courses are to better prepare students for college. Plagiarism is a very serious thing. Something colleges do not tolerate. He and his parents signed the contract. He was caught, and he should have to pay the price. Kudos to the school.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk 2

 

[ScubaTwinn]

I have a friend who teaches AP courses. She's told me she KNOWS her job is to get these kids ready for college. If the kid will cheat in high school, they're probably going to try and cheat in college. No tolerance for that kind of thing in an AP course where they signed an agreement.

 

[Masterj]

Way to teach your son a valuable lesson about accountability and consequences. Some parents are unbelievable. And yet we wonder why some kids have such a sense of entitlement.

 

[Cypros]

The parents are wrong here. The boy needs to learn a hard lesson. Better now than later when it will be much more serious. As a college professor, I am SO tired of dealing with students who think nothing of cheating.

 

[Nova]

The parents are wrong here. The boy needs to learn a hard lesson. Better now than later when it will be much more serious. As a college professor, I am SO tired of dealing with students who think nothing of cheating.

Cypros, it's exhausting and infuriating, isn't it? I finally resorted to requiring a lot of assignments be done by hand. Essay exams, of course, but also weekly assignments demonstrating that they had read the required material.

I figured that as long as they were copying from each other, they could at least copy by hand so I knew they had some experience with the material (other than downloading from a computer disk).

Needless to say, I made up assignments and exams anew each term, no matter how long I taught the same class. Students thought nothing of "borrowing" materials from upperclassmen and women.

And forget the expediency of letting students grade each other's pop quizzes! They would just fill in the missing answers for their friends.

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But I wonder why the article doesn't mention the student whose paper was copied? Unless it was stolen, s/he is just as much to blame as the copier.

 

[tlcya]

These parents need to have a foot in the arse.

Way to teach your son the rules are good for everyone but him.

Parent fail.

BBM - This part is the funniest to me. What emotional and mental penalty? the stress of worrying are mom and dad gonna successfully get me outta this? GMAB!

Mr Berghouse never denied that his son cheated, and told MercuryNews.com that the sophomore is contrite.

‘He knows it’s wrong,’ he said. ‘You cannot imagine the mental and emotional penalty that has been inflicted upon him.’


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...copied-classmates-homework.html#ixzz1tHOO96rF

 

[Nova]

For what it's worth, the problem is partly the refusal of parents to let their kids face consequences, as others have stated above.

But also to blame, I think, is the attitude that education is simply a commodity to be purchased and then transformed into future earnings potential. When a class isn't about learning or developing one's mind, but simply a means to an end, what difference does it make how one gets the grade?

In my experience, schools are as complicit in this mentality as parents and students. If students are merely "customers", then cheating on a grade is no different from getting a bargain at a sale.

(Yes, I realize one could also compare cheating to shoplifting, but (a) we know how rampant shoplifting is, and (b) like shoplifting, cheating is usually seen as a "victimless" crime and it's hard to convince people of the harm.)

 

[katydid23]

Cypros, it's exhausting and infuriating, isn't it? I finally resorted to requiring a lot of assignments be done by hand. Essay exams, of course, but also weekly assignments demonstrating that they had read the required material.

I figured that as long as they were copying from each other, they could at least copy by hand so I knew they had some experience with the material (other than downloading from a computer disk).

Needless to say, I made up assignments and exams anew each term, no matter how long I taught the same class. Students thought nothing of "borrowing" materials from upperclassmen and women.

And forget the expediency of letting students grade each other's pop quizzes! They would just fill in the missing answers for their friends.

***

But I wonder why the article doesn't mention the student whose paper was copied? Unless it was stolen, s/he is just as much to blame as the copier.

Good thinking about the hand written assignments. My DD had a great English teacher when she was a junior. He made them work on their essays IN CLASS, and they turned them into him at the end of the day. After several days of doing the 'in class' rough draft, they were allowed to take it home and type it up. HOWEVER he had already marked up the rough draft they did in class so he knew it was their work. I think it was a major way for these kids to get off the computer and stop cutting and pasting their work. We also had TURN IT IN . com. LOL

 

[Nova]

katy, I was lucky to teach in a field (theater history) that attracts fewer internet "entrepreneurs". Even so, I had to watch out for students downloading theater reviews into their papers. I don't know what teachers do in the more popular fields, where an entire paper can be downloaded on almost any assigned topic.

 

[katydid23]

katy, I was lucky to teach in a field (theater history) that attracts fewer internet "entrepreneurs". Even so, I had to watch out for students downloading theater reviews into their papers. I don't know what teachers do in the more popular fields, where an entire paper can be downloaded on almost any assigned topic.

TURN IT IN.COM

That is what many of the high schools and colleges do these days. The student gets an account, for free, in their name. And when they have a paper to turn in to class, they FIRST have to submit it to that website.

Then that site uses software that compares it to all of the possible writings on that subject on the net. And if you copied anything word for word, then it gives it the percentage of the paper that has been copied. And you get a receipt tp print out and give to the teacher.

The first time my son used it he forgot to put the quotes around the sections he quoted straight from the novel. So it said the paper was partially plagerized!!! Luckily he realized his mistake and put the quotes in place and it was fine.

They recently began using Turn It In. com on the essays that students submitted for college entry, and found some were plagarized. LOL Ruh Roh.

 

[Nova]

TURN IT IN.COM....

Very clever. I just had teaching assistants who would google key phrases that didn't sound like the student's language.

And we haven't even discussed what a teacher goes through AFTER discovering incidents of cheating. The large, state school where I taught didn't allow me to penalize the cheater or even mention the problem; I could only gather evidence and turn it over to the department chair who, if he agreed, then passed it on to a university-wide dean for further investigation and disposal.

I'm sure some professors just give up and decide it is easier to pretend they don't notice the cheating.

 

[deelytful1]

The parents are wrong here. The boy needs to learn a hard lesson. Better now than later when it will be much more serious. As a college professor, I am SO tired of dealing with students who think nothing of cheating.

Exactly! My son is in seventh grade and just got in trouble for "plagiarizing" some paragraphs on his science project... His teacher told me "He learned a very valuable lesson early on in life" and I agree He then had to re-do the ENTIRE report. When I found out he was also punished for the weekend.
PARENTS NEED TO STOP STICKING UP FOR THEIR CHILDREN!! Was the punishment harsh for this kid? maybe... but the parents did sign an agreement (as did the student) but I doubt the student will ever copy homework OR plagiarize again!
So really they could have taught the child 2 lessons: Not to cheat and if you sign a binding contract, you must abide by it... Instead they are teaching him to play the role of victim even though HE was wrong.. :sigh:
Tired of this attitude in parents.. very tired.