Cheating, when caught, can be met with severe punishment.
Senior Sarah* dealt with the repercussions of plagiarism during her sophomore year. She says, “I used some of my friend’s old work in one of my essays. It came up as 25 percent similarity on turnitin.com. My teacher gave me a zero on the assignment which brought my grade down to an “F” for most of the semester. My mom was scared I wouldn’t pass the class, but I got [my English grade] up to a “C” in the end.”
In addition to her teacher giving her a zero, Sarah faced further consequences from the administration. She adds, “I had a pretty harsh talk with the dean, but I think my punishment was pretty fair [overall], although I don’t know how much more I would have been able to take. I think they saw that I was still a sophomore and that I had good grades, so they didn’t put me on the academic dishonesty list.”
However, not all cheating happens in the core academic classes. Senior John* says, “In culinary arts class last semester, the lasagna I baked was too hard so I used someone else’s lasagna as my own, and my partner decided to tell the teacher. The teacher gave me a zero on the final, and apparently she tried to flunk me out of the class but she wasn’t able to. [The teacher] also said that she told the dean to put my name on the academic dishonesty list. I’ve heard that your colleges get informed if you’re on the list, and I was scared of getting rescinded, but none of my colleges ever contacted me.”
In terms of the consequences he faced, John believes there should be more knowledge of the rules, and punishments should be more consistent. He says, “Some teachers will let you off with a warning for cheating, and others will put you on the list for minor [academic dishonesty]. I don’t think it’s fair that students should be punished for the teacher they had that year.”
