Cheater's father sues school

[Python20]

Too bad, the school had said he could join the IB program, and they wouldnt mention the violation in recommendations. But that wasn't good enough for dad, he had to bully the entire district. So now, his sons offense is all over the internet for all the schools to see.

The punishment and responsibility was spelled out in the forms signed in the beginning of the year by the student and his mom. Or is his lawyer father saying they signed forms without reading them?

Karma gets the Dad, cause who wants a lawyer who cant read his contracts or is supporting cheating. And now he's insured by his own actions that all the ivy league schools know exactly what his son did in high school

[mommusic]

I'm not sure this kid can hack the IB program, actually. He wasn't able to do journal entries on his own, which is surely the easiest kind of work there is; how will he write essays or research papers?

[Bay]

There are always two sides to the story. It looks like the prescribed penalty is in dispute, not whether the boy cheated or not. According to this article, the school did back off of the initial penalty due to a "loophole," which indicates to me that the disciplinary actions they took were not necessarily justified by written policy. Apparently there was a document referencing a "two-strikes" policy attached to the honesty pledge.

Parents sue district for kicking son out of Sequoia High honors class for cheating - San Jose Mercury News

If the boy is removed from the class his transcript will be affected, and he will have some explaining to do.

[D'yer Maker]

Originally Posted by Momzie

Can you imagine being the poor prof who actually gets this kid in his classes next year?

That's an excellent point. In fact, I assume that this is what drove the stated punishment...not having someone who cheated remaining in the class with that teacher for the remainder of the year.

How would that work? The teacher catches the kid cheating and has to turn a blind eye to that? How does the classroom operate in that situation? How are subjective grades given to a student who has suffered no repercussions for cheating? Does the teacher spend his/her time double- and triple-checking this kid's work for cheating? Or not? If s/he does, then it's a time sink (and gets cast as a witch-hunt or vendetta). And if not, that's negligence.

The kid threw away the trust with that teacher. Unless there's some consequence -- changing classes -- nobody has a sound basis to trust this student's academic integrity and there would be no point in having him remain around the school. So all they did was put him in a different class -- which is the bare minimum repercussion. And they did this in his sophomore year. So now he's in a class where he should excel if he's so darn bright. I don't think the cheating was a huge deal...but, as between the teacher and student, it definitely is and he had to change classes at the very least.

Of course, thanks to dad, it's now a huge deal and the kid faces a far bigger hurdle than being in a college-track English Lit class during his sophomore year if he wants an Ivy admit in 2014. What self-respecting college that connects this story to this applicant will want him badly enough to admit him when there are hundreds, if not thousands, of other fully qualified applicants who could take that spot? Now the kid is going to have to do more than work hard. He's going to have to cure something, or invent something, or broker peace or catch Kony if he wants a competitive college to consider embracing him (and his paternal baggage).

[squidge]

I agree with the comments about how hard many kids these days work - D has 4 AP, 2 "honors" classes, school sport, club sport that requires HOURS of training plus missed school, and a part-time job. I didn't work as hard as she does in any of my 4 years of college. HOWEVER, none of that justifies cheating. If she gets caught cheating, she has to deal with the consequences. She does very well, but knows she could do better if she cut down on her sport, but it's a decision she's made for herself. She knows kids with higher class ranks than she who are big on the "group study session" which often means, "you do the chem worksheet, I'll do the history paper and we'll share...". She works so hard and often stays up so late that it's hard to watch as a mom. But I also know she will be well-prepared for success in college (where she plans to compete in a varsity sport and major in engineering) and more importantly in life. Does anyone really think that 10 years from now it will matter whether she was in the top 5 in her class vs. 16th??? But the lessons she learned from prioritizing her time, being part of a team, earning her own money, being honest with herself? Yup, those REALLY matter, now and always, IMHO.

This Dad makes me sick, but it's sadly not surprising at all. Remember the piece on 20/20 about kids paying to have their SAT/ACT taken? You know most of that money came directly and knowingly from mom and dad. Or as someone mentioned above, the big business of diagnosing kids with "learning disabilities" to help them with school and tests (And that is NOT to take away from the very real learning disabilities that are out there - I'm talking about the underground network of Dr's known for getting parents what they want.)

It all seems to go hand in hand with money, sad to say. Parents with money buying their kids way through high school and into the Ivys. I'm sure they'll all then be transformed into happy, successful, productive citizens....NOT....

[Fermat25]

I think some people are overreacting. Not that the father isn't, because he most certainly is, but still. We need a more clear view on the entire situation. The article reads:

Berghouse's son and three other students were dropped from a sophomore honors English class at Sequoia High School in Redwood City for copying and sharing homework.

Now, as someone who attended a selective magnet school that sends students to a variety of top colleges, I can tell you about my experience involving such "cheating." On something like a tedious homework assignment that has no educational value to a student and was instead busy work, many of my classmates had no problem "cheating." They would share answers, discuss answers, etc. Several of my teachers saw it happening, would comment on it negatively, but would ultimately not do anything about it. However, my classmates still valued education and would never cheat on something like a test or pertinent assignment. When they had to actually use their abilities and not do busy work, cheating was never an option. Cheating only occurred on assignments that were in reality pointless and just assigned to have more grades. I don't ever condone cheating, but I would disagree with punishing any of my classmates to any significant degree. The work that had value and attributed to our education they would always complete and work hard on. But on other assignments, the ones that are done in this drone like fashion of boredom with zero intelligence applied, they could easily recognize the worthlessness and would help each other out to just get it done and move on with their lives. Many brain-draining assignments were done in groups, with certain people doing specific parts and then sharing. These people weren't immoral or bad students. They were smart and capable people who didn't like wasting time. They all received a great education, and nothing was detracted from their experience by helping each other on these assignments.

Again, I don't know the specifics of this case, although it was homework, but the lines of what is really "cheating" are vague in my eyes. The best policy is to probably never cheat, but copying someone's else HW assignment does not warrant a removal from a class or program by any means. Lesser punishment would have been fine.

[sovereigndebt]

I NEVER condone any cheating. But copying homework? If we did a confidential survey we would find out that 70% of kids do that. So please. Its like making infidelity a felony, we would have 200 million in jail. Foolish. (And I dont condone infidelity either, btw!)

Cheating on an exam is different than copying homework.

I also support lawsuits against teachers and schools. I have put 3 kids through schools and I have come to believe that most schools and school systems are arrogant, condescending, tin soldier authoritarian and sometimes abusive. They need to be sued. Early and often. Nothing like a lawsuit to adjust behaviors.

Bring it!

[Hanna]

'I find it surprising that everyone is condemning the father's lawsuit, yet when others on here have children who have broken the law, they are advised to lawyer-up."

Lawyering up is not the same thing as filing a lawsuit. Of course the family should hire a lawyer if they believe that the school system has broken its own rules. This kind of lawyer gives advice and helps the family negotiate with the school system. They might even threaten to sue.

I am both a lawyer and an admissions consultant. Filing a lawsuit, which is by definition on the public record, is the nuclear option in this kind of conflict. It CAN make sense if every other option has failed, and the prize for winning is more valuable than the likely cost of the publicity. In this case, the "prize" is reinstatement to the honors course. That's worth almost nothing when compared to the publicity cost. This kid would be a million times better off explaining a brief break in his IB English program than winning the case with his cheating publicized in the news.

People do file lawsuits in order to make statements to the school system, but if that's the goal, then the father sacrificed his kid's interests just to make a point. Terrible strategy.

"the lines of what is really "cheating" are vague in my eyes."

That's fine. But this kid wants to please Ivy League adcoms, not us. We may disagree with their expectations, but we are fools to ignore them.

[laplatinum]

I am considering just what GC or teacher wants his/her head on the chopping block for the LORs for these kids--particularly the one with the litigious father. Lord help 'em. I also wonder just how these kids are going to frame this to any admissions committee in their essays: "We ARE cheaters but we should by privilege still be admitted to your universities where we may just sue your a---s, too." I think the father suing the district has totally delivered the admissions eulogy for his kid.

[Bay]

This kid would be a million times better off explaining a brief break in his IB English program than winning the case with his cheating publicized in the news.

Hanna,
As an admissions consultant, how would recommend he explain the brief break in his IB English program without disclosing the cheating?

The boy and his father probably figured that without the reinstatement, boy was screwed anyway, so they may as well file the lawsuit and make the school district pay for their unfair treatment of him, too.

[Hanna]

"how would recommend he explain the brief break in his IB English program without disclosing the cheating?"

This is the kind of thing you work out with the high school. The HS offered to conceal/expunge the cheating. The parents (and their lawyer, if applicable) negotiate what language the student should use to describe the move if asked about it in an interview. The agreed language might be something truthful like: "Some personal issues came up for me that semester, and my teachers and I thought I'd be better off in the Track 2 course temporarily, but by the end of the semester we all agreed I was ready to go back to IB."

But it probably won't come up. If he doesn't get a direct question about it, he doesn't have to address it. If the student is going to complete the IB program on time, colleges would not necessarily care that he was in non-honors English for one semester. It just doesn't look very suspicious on a transcript; students move from one track to another all the time. Illness, sports season, parental divorce...stuff happens. Yeah, HYP might hold back a few tough-curriculum points over it, but it doesn't raise suspicion if the HS dean's report is clean. It'll come across like a B, or at worst a C. Even a C looks much, much better than cheating.

[Erin's Dad]

I NEVER condone any cheating. But copying homework? If we did a confidential survey we would find out that 70% of kids do that.

I guess we use a different definition of cheating. Glad my kids are in the other 30%.

[epiphany]

^ me, too.

[xleadinglifex]

@Erin's Dad
Yeah, you think that, but how do you actually KNOW? I mean, the kids that cheat don't go around telling their parents. That's part of why cheating gets covered up and unpunished, parents delude themselves over what their little Suzy-Q would and wouldn't do and suzy would NEVER cheat, so accusations of the sort end up in lawsuits in rich districts. No one wants a lawsuit or the threat of one, so they let Suzy off with a warning. Every time.

Not saying your kids do cheat, just some food for thought.

[mwahal]

Any parent who "thinks" their kids dont cheat is cheating to him/herself. The cheating goes at different level, such as homework, classwork, class quizes, class tests, finals and even at SAT/AP level. You just hope that your kids understand the consequences.

My son's one teacher encouraged homework "discussions" but then ask everyone to come up with answer themselves. Ironically, at job, these "discussions" get the work done. Imagine if all engineers sit in their own cube and try to finish entire project independently by themselves.