<p>This sounds like an overreaction to me, too. You did what your mom told you to do. She will confirm that you had the authority to sign. Let her handle it. The school is being petty. It does seem like there is a history of bad blood between your family and the school. I wouldn’t worry about college reactions. </p>
<p>Classic example of a petty bureaucrat attempting to exert what little power they have. Don’t let them intimidate you, and don’t let them frame it as “forgery.” Repeatedly say “signed with my mother’s foreknowledge and permission.”</p>
<p>I’m glad you’ll be out of that place soon.</p>
<p>In my state you must intend to defraud someone. If you don’t it’s not forgery. </p>
<p>I can’t imagine any college will rescind your admission over this. If your high school puts that you forged a signature on your permanent record, consult an attorney. It’s important that this not be on your permanent record. </p>
<p>
Signing another person’s name with authorization is not a lapse in ethics. It is done in business settings all the time. It is certainly better to indicate on the document that you are signing the other person’s name with authorization–What I have seem mostly is “Joe Blow by Richard Roe.”</p>
<p>The school could legitimately have a rule that this isn’t allowed for school permissions–because of proof issues–but the rule should be in writing. I’ll bet they don’t have such a rule. If they institute one, follow it in the future. (Indeed, why ask for trouble? Don’t do this any more, at least in this school.)</p>
<p>@Hunt … Just because things may occur in business settings all the time does not mean those things ought to be done. I stand by my recommendation and my opinion that getting in the habit of signing other people’s names, even with authorization, is a very bad habit that can impact one’s integrity, not to mention potentially put someone at risk if ever another party questions that signature. The OPs situation illustrates that nicely. Thank goodness we are not talking tax documents or other financial, but just a school note. If a person, whether a parent or a business colleague, needs to have someone sign for them frequently, then invest in a custom signature stamp as others have recommended… Don’t ask another person to sign your name in their handwriting, and don’t sign for someone else, no matter what may be common, unethical practices in today’s business world.</p>
<p>Chesterton, I repeat, it’s not unethical. There may be good reasons not to do it in some situations (or to make sure you do it right), but ethics isn’t one of them.</p>
<p>@chesterton I agree with @hunt it is certainly not unethical. Except of course when the president and congress do it – you have heard of auto-pen, right?</p>
<p>Per the comment from above, this is bureaucracy in action. Many if not most teachers are what they call an SJ personality type, the J being Judgemental, meaning they like rules, and insist they be followed. They don’t think outside the box very well. Society needs rule followers, but they can also gum up the works by insisting on petty procedures being followed even when it was clear there was no intent to defraud.</p>
<p>You won’t win by arguing directly with this person, nor will your mom. Instead, you need to go above them and use their own rules against them. Have your Mom file a complaint if you have to, so they’re too caught up in the bureaucracy that’s being imposed on them to bother dealing with you.</p>
<p>This is definitely not an issue for any college. If they question it, simply tell your story and you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>@collegevetting . . . were we taking a vote here? You say tomato, I say tomahto - well, actually, I don’t say “tomahto” but you get the idea. I believe one way, and you believe another. The OP has received the benefit of a lot of input from people coming from different perspectives. And isn’t that the point of posting to a public forum?</p>
<p>I will never forget witnessing a colleague who was in the habit of signing other people’s names to grant application documents, with their blanket permission (for expediency purposes, given the nature of grant application deadlines.) On one occasion, this colleague had to go on a business trip to a conference, leaving a trusted assistant in charge to handle all of the incoming grant applications. This colleague instructed this trusted assistant to cover for him, and to handle whatever came in, and to process the grant applications that would be coming in while he was gone, just as he would do. So she did, including signing other people’s names, just as he had made a regular habit. When he returned and discovered that she had done this, he was angry, but the trusted assistant was confused. After all, she had just conducted business exactly as he did, so what was the problem? He could not fire her for following in his footsteps - he was not such a hypocrite - but their professional relationship never recovered. Call it what you want because I won’t quibble over whether this situation involved ethics. I am satisfied to call it foolish (and, yes, I know, you don’t think it is foolish - duly noted.)</p>
<p>As far as that “auto-pen”, well, does it look anything like my feather plume pen? It is so hard to keep up with all these new-fangled inventions, you know. That auto-pen sounds a bit dull. When it comes to forging, or rather, signing on behalf of other people, I will take the finesse of the feather quill over one of those auto-pens any day.</p>
<p>@chesterton Ethics =/= lack of foolishness. It is often foolish, and in the assistant’s case she exceeded her authority because it wasn’t his signature with his permission she was signing but the signature of others from whom she presumably did not have permission. I agree she likely thought she was following instructions and may have thought she had permission from the third parties through his blanket instruction, hence might not have been strictly unethical if she thought they had given transferable authority to the guy who gave her the blanket instruction. But not following up, and signing another name when she did not have strict authority from the third party whose name she was signing was a different situation than is presented here.</p>
<p>And ethics is not the same as foolishness. To err is human, to act unethically is dishonest. The latter is more insulting, imho, going to character, not merely judgement (which is bad enough.) I was responding to the insult.</p>