Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Moral Dilemma: Plagiarized report.

Part 4. [Link to article here]

"You are head of a student council at a high school, and are faced with a difficult decision regarding a grade-twelve girl’s risky, last-resort choice. This girl is an honor student. All through her academic years, she has obtained straight A’s, has many friends and has never been disciplined by the principal. However, near the end of her grade twelve year, she fell ill with the flu and fell way behind in her school work. She missed three weeks of class, which resulted in her having to rush a report that would be worth 40% of English, a required graduation subject in her curriculum. She was so desperate about the report that she went online and passed off a report she found on that subject as her own. Her English teacher caught her and has referred her to you. If you enter on her academic record that she plagiarized, she will likely not be eligible to be accepted into St. Steven’s University, a school she has dreamed of attending all through high school and needs in order to fulfill her academic and future dreams.
What would you do?"

Well, i guess she's not THAT smart if she think she's gonna get away with plagiarism. What? Did she really think she's gonna fool the teacher in charge and the teacher will not notice it? 

She's an honor student, she should know the rules and regulation. It doesn't matter if you're sick or anything, cheating is cheating and i'm pretty sure they're more stricter to good students.

Okay, now, back to me. What would i do if i had to deal with this?

I don't know. I definitely wouldn't just ignore her actions, cause it would obviously look bad on me. I have to be partial and fair to everyone, and not give special treatments to the "good" ones. Besides, she knew what she was doing and she obviously know what her consequences are if she ever get caught. 

Now, what i would suggest is that, she redo her assignment that has to be submitted on the day itself. Of course, the teacher would have to agree with it. I wouldn't go straight to the Principal. I guess it's only fair. 

Since she's a smart student with straight A's, and she only did it as a last resort, i'm sure she could come up with something even better than the plagiarized report. 



Well, that's what i'd do anyway, so if you guys have any idea on how to handle this situation better than me, don't be too shy to comment.

Have a great day, lovelies!

1 comment:

ADTC said...

Something along the lines you said. I'd reprimand her for cheating instead of being honest about the sickness and limited time available for her to catch up. Seeing how hardworking and straight A honour student she is, I'm sure the teacher would have rewarded her with a short extension (if possible) or helped her in some way.

But she decided to cheat, and if this is swept under the rug, it will water the seeds of cheating in her mind. If she gets into St. Stevens, she's likely to cheat more in the university and even get addicted to cheating. Hence the appropriate response IMO would be to reprimand her heavily for bad behavior, then give her a second chance to redo the assignment (if possible) with remorse. She will have her lesson learnt, will not cheat again, will be grateful for giving her the second chance and will continue to be honor student even through St. Stevens.