By SYDNEY BASS and ALISON LIEBERMAN
Recently, an incident of cheating was reported in two Advanced Placement United States History classes. According to teachers and administrators, the students involved were assigned a document based question essay to be completed independently over the April break. When the time came to collect the papers, both AP U.S History teachers, Ms. Bensen and Ms. Kakounis, quickly became aware that several students had plagiarized essays from websites including Google Proofs and Study Mode. Some students only copied the introduction while others took sentences and small phrases.
Ms. Bensen said, “Collectively they are all very nice kids; some were very surprising. What was so disturbing was that we gave them time to do this on their own. Some students have been absolutely professional and responsible and mature about taking responsibility, apologizing and saying they were under pressure; and others haven’t, and that’s too bad.”
This scandal may affect further testing conditions in Ms. Bensen’s classroom. “I probably couldn’t give this assignment again. All writing will have to be in class, and I might not even do that anymore if their notes are going to reflect someone else’s work.”
Academic integrity can greatly affect one’s reputation. Assistant principal Dr. Artiles puts the matter into perspective by explaining how students’ actions in one classroom environment can follow them throughout high school. ”Just like when you commit a crime it follows you, so the best advice is for students to just give credit. Do the citation.”
Plagiarism is not just a high school concern. Academic integrity is very important on the college level. Guidance counselor Ms. Becker said, “Colleges are really big on integrity and on the honor system. Sometimes they make you sign it, sometimes there’s a student council there that does reviews of their peers, so it’s huge.”
One of Bensen’s students told her how she was glad this happened so that this kind of cheating is exposed and that students who do not cheat can be appreciated for their integrity. Bensen relayed how she looked at this student and said, “I want you to know that when you look in the mirror you know who you are and you know the person you want to be and that’s wonderful, and so you’re ahead of the game.”
Very glad the JerEcho covered this story. What was the consequence for the students? I think students need to hear about a school’s firm stance on academic integrity every year.