I got caught cheating. What should I do?

goaliedad
Tue, 06 May 2008 23:24:48 +0000

I daresay they could lose their job if they left the money unattended and it disappeared.

I have a relative who was a branch manager at a bank (and over 25 years with that bank) where a teller left a large deposited check in an unsecured drawer overnight and lost her job over it on the spot. The check never moved, mind you.

I dare say that there is a larger importance placed on money at a bank than grades at a school, although you would think that grades are the ‘currency’ of a school - the thing that makes an institution respected.

However, there are different rules and personnel policies governing schools and banks (see on going discussion about NYC teachers in rubber rooms).

I know that I had the opportunity to pocket a fairly large sum (the days sales of a consession stand at an arena) of money that was accidentally left in a location that had public access. Upon discovering the money, I took it upon myself to find the nearest security desk at the arena and I made sure that there were other arena managment employees present when I turned over the money to assure that I would not be accused of pocketing the money (if the people I turned it over to conveniently forgot to pass it on). I wasn’t thinking of how I might spend the money (not that it would make a meaningful difference in my life - much like the grade change the student did) but thinking of the poor person who might be fired and accused of theft when the money turned up missing.

In the end, though, it is ultimately the responsibility of a student to act within the rules of the school, regardless of the failure of others. If it had been another student accidentally leaving his corrected test on the floor, would the student left alone to copy the answers be any less culpable? I understand that many young people (presumably the OP included) haven’t developed the maturity to handle such situations. Given the facts that came out since (the OP’s clean record and the punishment administered), I think the outcome was a benefit to the OP that s/he may learn from going forward.

Hopefully, one day, s/he will have the opportunity to apply this lesson to do the right thing and repay the mercy s/he has been granted.