Cheating is a Grey Area

I remember when I was in school, cheaters were the bad kids who disappeared into the principal’s office and usually came back either sobbing or with a sore bottom. This was back when spanking was still allowed in schools – and I went to a public school! Mostly, I remember my teacher’s never had to explain or define cheating. We all knew what it was, and we knew we weren’t supposed to do it. So we didn’t. It was that simple.

But, times have changed.

I taught a technology class at an all-girl’s, private Catholic high school in June. It was only three weeks long, and I guess I never realized how much turmoil could be caused in such a short time period. (I’m a little worried about what’s going to happen in the duration of an entire school year…)

Five girls, whose stereotypes I shall spare you, but are typical of freshmen: trying to be cool and fit in, decided Mrs. Knapp is a complete moron. While some days that is quite true, they picked the wrong one to turn in the same THREE unit projects with nothing but their names changed on them. They weren’t even smart cheaters. This would be an easy case...

…Except for that part about it happening in a private school. Private school parents are a different breed. Dennis and I hope to be private school parents when little Frankie hits his school days, so I pray I never turn into one of them. But, because they pay bags and bags of money for their child’s education, this apparently entitles them special considerations and exemption from rules.

With the school principal, the typical “sister mother” nun who everyone fears, on my side, we sat through hours of parent meetings and conference calls hashing and rehashing the event. Three of the girls openly admitted that they cheated, knew they were cheating and knew it was wrong when they did it. Yet, their parents STILL insisted that giving them a zero was too harsh. One parent actually pulled her daughter out of the school saying the school policies and administration are too hard on its students. Another even said, “Look, she’s crying, she said she was sorry. Isn’t that enough?” Meanwhile, I’m thinking, “Why the heck is she crying? She cheated, she got her zero. Choice, consequence. Lesson learned. Now, let’s get over it and move on.” At the rate they’re going, good luck in college, ladies.

These five girls cried and whined their way through it, but we stuck to our guns and they still got their zeros. They’ll curse my name forever when their GPAs are tarnished and college destinies destroyed by one low grade in my otherwise easy A class. But these aren’t the only five girls with parents empowering and supporting them this way. This is what our culture has become. Or maybe, has been for a long time? It turns my stomach that our youth are not being taught responsibility for their actions, proper judgment to do the right thing and ethical behavior in what is now their classrooms, but will soon be our country’s workplaces.

I can only hope that others in my generation remember our own upbringings and attempt to raise our children with the morals and standards we were taught. Our country is becoming a sad, sad place, and our youth is our best shot at turning it around. As much wasted time and stress this situation took, it only validates why I MUST be a teacher.