accused of cheating

nontraditional
Fri, 07 May 2010 15:59:42 +0000

Whether or not your son is obligated to turn in the kid who is cheating on the calculus test depends on what the rules on cheating are at the high school. Not all schools require students who are aware of but not involved in cheating to report it. I think speaking up is the only right course of action here, but it may not be required.

That said, I think your son would be a fool not to turn the cheater in at the earliest possible opportunity. There is some evidence that he cheats (even if it’s not conclusive and even if he doesn’t) and the school knows it. What happens if the other kid gets caught and names your son as someone who knew about what was happening? How will it look if – right after he is accused, protests his innocence, and avoids a formal judgment that he cheated – evidence surfaces from a completely different source that he may have been involved in a separate plan to cheat? People who believe in him now may stop believing in him. And that is not in his best interest.