A hallmark of academics, at any level of schooling, is a stringent policy against cheating and academic dishonesty. A Piper, Kan. school teacher effortlessly grasps this concept. Apparently, those who run her school district do not.
High school biology instructor Christine Pelton was faced with one of a teacher's worst scenarios: a gaggle of students caught cheating. Twenty-eight 10th-graders, nearly one-fifth of her biology students, plagiarized their semester projects from Internet sources. Pelton did what anyone would expect a teacher in her position to do: she failed the students, all of whom had signed the course syllabus that warned of the consequences of cheating. Both the school's principal and superintendent agreed with the teacher's decision. The school district, however, overruled their collective judgment and told Pelton to simply deduct some credits from the wayward students and lessen the project's value on their overall grades. As a result, Pelton resigned in disgust.
Why did the school board run roughshod over the entire hierarchy of a school in its district? The parents of the students complained to the board when informed of their children's punishments. Giving in to the whining of overprotective parents was a mistake. Barring allegations of extreme misconduct on the teacher's part, a school board should respect the established chain of command laid down to ensure the school's smooth administration. In this instance, Pelton was well within her rights as an instructor to discipline students guilty of perpetrating the most severe academic infraction even under the most liberal standards. Students guilty of cheating, especially in such a blatant manner, need to be thoroughly punished in a public manner to prevent further, more grievous violations.
Students who cheat do so because they are given license, tacitly, by the authority figures in their environment. They sense a lack of will to discipline students caught committing infractions. Pelton's case offered the opportunity for a high-profile crack down on cheating and a graphic illustration of the consequences of such behavior. The board's actions, however, sent a message even worse than inaction. Now, as Pelton herself discovered, the students are taught that their teacher's authority is limited and can be easily overridden by superiors.
By stepping over Pelton, the principal and the superintendent, the parents disrupted the natural flow of authority and facilitated this contradictory message. And by listening, and ultimately acting upon the parents' unjustified complaints, the school board compounded the problem. Adult authority figures have the responsibility to hold their children to a higher standard, by forcing them to take responsibility for their actions. Giving kids a "Get Out of Jail Free" card sabotages that intention.
Injured most of all in this sorry tale are the honest students, who are forced to compete against liars and cheats. What does it tell them, when the people who circumvented the hard work they put forth are merely slapped on the wrist? The message received instead is: the district doesn't respect my hard work, why should I care? The quality students deserve more respect from their school than what they got.
It's a shame a teacher like Pelton, who properly recognized her duty, quit. She shouldn't worry, though. If she reapplies in that district, she could cheat and make up a fake r?(c)sum?(c). What's the harm? It's just dishonesty.
