Today I failed a student for plagiarism

Published on March 9, 2004 By Angloesque In Misc

It was coming. You can't copy and paste from the Internet and get away with it in my class.

I talked to her and gave her a letter, the "official" documentation, of which copies were sent to several prominant campus people. She tried to convince me to do anything but fail her, because failing this class means she's out of the college. So not only have I bummed her out, I've kicked her out, too. Excellent. You know what she said to me before she left? "I just want to know you don't think I'm a bad person."

God, no. You're not a bad person. You did something stupid, and you knew my policy on it and did it anyway. You're not bad; it was a bad decision.

Compounding the issue is the fact that now I'll be facing an appeals process since she thinks that her blatant plagiarism shouldn't result in either (a) an F or (

expulsion from the college, which is apparently due to other things; this is simply the straw that broke the camel's back.

But students have to learn to be responsible. They should not be coddled and their egregious errors glossed over so that we can rake in the tuition dollars (that go anywhere but my paycheck, it seems). What kind of education do we provide when we let students get away with this? It's like teaching them slick political moves: Threaten your teacher with an appeal or a lawsuit, and they'll just give you an A- instead of an A when you plagiarize your paper. They don't want the hassle. That's how you get out of this one!

Comments (Page 1)

messybuu

on Mar 09, 2004

I think you've made the right decision. How long will the appeals process take? I mean, isn't being expelled for plagiarism one of the biggest policies colleges have?

Angloesque

on Mar 09, 2004

Appeals process depends on how fast the committee wants to meet. Could be this week, though they won't normally meet. Usually it's all resolved in three weeks, but we're almost at the end of term, so I don't know.

To the best of my knowledge, the committee in question has never overturned a faculty decision, so that's on my side. Still, it's an annoyance and a burden and I'm a new teacher (no tenure or anything) so I'm not sure what kind of hoops they might want me to jump through to break me in.

JeremyG

on Mar 09, 2004

Can you please start failing people on JoeUser?

Angloesque

on Mar 09, 2004

Okay. I'll go check your page right now....

imajinit

on Mar 09, 2004

I'm thrilled to hear that you took the hard right over the easy wrong. (it may not have seemed 'hard' to you, but for many people it would have been)...

it's good to know that there are still honest people out there

Angloesque

on Mar 09, 2004

Yeah, well, I'm young and idealistic, if just a wee bit cynical.

imajinit

on Mar 09, 2004

I'm hoping to be a college professor one day, so...

the difference is, i'm gonna wait til i'm old and gray... hmmmm

Angloesque

on Mar 09, 2004

The best professors I ever had were the ones with keen senses of humor and a good knowledge of their stuff. That combination actually makes people learn.

And BTW, if you start out early as a prof, you get grey pretty fast.

imajinit

on Mar 09, 2004

i have this vision of being old and gray, with a beer gut and glasses... oh, and a long beard. I want to challenge students above all else... and I want them to challenge me.

I'll have to work on the sense of humor bit...

Sherye Hanson

on Mar 09, 2004

Very funny, imajinit. Angloesque, I think you are very brave and smart to have done what you did. Plagarism is a very serious problem for a student. One of my professors committed plagarism and it changed him from being arrogant, to having some humility. He went on to be a great Bible scholar, but he didn't take anymore shortcuts. Btw, he was failed and kicked out of school, also.

wnx_decoy

on Mar 09, 2004

Do you go threw and check every students report for plagarism? A lot of my teachers say they do but students keep getting away with it. Or do you just randomly check them? I'm just wandering because it doesn't seem like my teachers really do check them all.

Capt. over and out!

Angloesque

on Mar 09, 2004

I check when it grabs my attention. I try to have a good handle on each student's voice and knowledge, and when they deviate from that even a little, I check. I also do spot checks and periodic checks. But every time I've seen plagiarism it's been because their writing voice changes from what I am used to.

--T.

PoetPhilosopher

on Mar 09, 2004

School is weird. In the workplace - you can copy all you want. In fact it is encouraged. Well.. up to a point right ? And law is actually *based* on precedent. I suppose it would have been different if she had cited the work - then you would have failed her not for plagarism, but for lack of effort ? heh

JillTeacher

on Mar 09, 2004

This is such a tough issue. I teach third grade, and already it's something I have to explain and warn my students about. The scary thing is, this whole bend-the-rules-until-they-break thing is getting way out of hand. My students push every time they are given a directive - they want exception after exception after exception. They've mastered this, and they're only eight. What is going to happen with these kids hit college?

Lunaticus Minimus

on Mar 09, 2004

I can't quote which issue, but I think I remember an article in Reader's Digest? (Ugh, long-term memory..) In the article a whole class had been failed in English due to prevalent and rampant plagarism..And the kids all whined to their parents, who in turn put pressure on the school board..who in turn leaned on the teacher and forced her to reverse her grade decision and passed the children. Now, where I live we're trying to catch every child before they fall through the cracks..How is letting them get away with plagarism "saving" them from falling through the system? Seems to me they already fell somewhere to have tried it. I think it's crap.

Maybe schoolkids (even the younger ones) should be taken to civil court over plagarism when it occurs and restitution be demanded to the third-party who had written the durn thing originally.. (Or something along those lines, I'm sleepy

)

All of these articles tie in some way to the fact that people do not want to be held responsible for making poor decisions. "Ooops, I made a bad mistake..I knew better..MY BAD..How dare you punish me for it!!!"

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