by Jack Lee
I was indulging in a blend of French roast and caramel coffee at one of our downtown coffee shops and at the same time talking with several friends and acquaintances. One was new to our casual group, she was a CSUC student. She asked if she could run a problem by the group of us old guys and it went something like this. She’s a freshman and she was taking her first mid-term for a chemistry class. Things were going really well, she knew the answers and her test was done well ahead of most others. As she sat there she was looking around, more or less without really thinking about her actions and the teacher observed this. The teacher apparently thought she was cheating.
After class the teacher confronter her and said she had zero tolerance for cheating and her test grade on this important midterm exam would be a zero! The student was stunned and almost speechless. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before.
She’s an A student or at least she was in High School. She had no motive or reason to cheat, her grade was already strong and she was ahead in her reading assignments and was feeling very confident about the class. But, the bottom line here is it just ran against her own personal moral code. She said she would never cheat and there was no background for such behavior in school in her entire life. Further the teacher never said who she thought the student was cheating from.
As a freshman student, age 17, she doesn’t have a lot of life experience to draw on so she did what she could. She tried to be diplomatic and convince the teacher she really wasn’t cheating. The teacher finally said she would think about it and possibly give her another test. The next class the teacher informed the student said she didn’t feel it was fair to the other students to give her another test…she was getting the zero.
Our student went to her counselor, but the counselor said the teacher’s decision was final and there was little she could do. The counselor offered her the choice of dropping the class or continuing with the prospect of getting a D at best. The student was mortified and after calling home and discussing it with her parents she withdrew from the chemistry class – it was a disaster. Now she’s trying to get a refund for her tuition and that may not happen.
My take on this is, if a student was cheating as alleged then it’s likely happened before. However, this student has never been accused before…not cheating, not for anything. She’s a very moral person. Also if a person is guilty they don’t usually protest so much and show so much emotion. We really had no answer for this one, so I was wondering if anyone out here could come up with something?
Unfortunately, she will have to use this as a learning experience. At some point in everyone’s life, they will be accused of doing something they have not done. Hopefully, we can get enough evidence to prove we are innocent of the accusation. However, lacking any way to prove one’s innocence can be devastating at times, but mostly it should be a learning experience. i do understand that such an incident even if the person is guiltless, could actually follow one throughout their college career.
God does have a way of balancing things out in one’s life if they walk a straight line. The lesson to be learned is that even the smallest irregularities in the way one acts or presents themselves can sometime create a situation for others to see things as they are not. I am reminded of the whole premise for the sitcom, “Threes Company”. As I said, lacking the ability to prove ones innocence, means you need to regroup and consider the way others see you.
Above all, if one cannot prove their innocence, they need to make sure that said incident does not ruin ones life. Life will go on, the sun will set, and the sun will rise. Friends will be made and some will be lost, but after college she will one day learn that 80% of what she learned there was useless. So much so that she forgot most of it shortly after she graduated.
Just remember, that when a person focuses more on the things God wants you to focus on, the rest will fall into place. Then one day in the future, when you are sitting on the front porch and watching the world go by at speed you can no longer embrace, you will see that God has put everything in your life in its proper place of perspective. That is when she may remember the time a certain professor accused her of cheating, and realize it was nothing but thing. After all she has had many things in her life that have far overshadowed the disappointments of her life, like the day she was accused of cheating on a test, oh so many years ago.
Is she a liberal?
If I were she the first thing I would do is vow to never again casually look around the room during testing.
The second thing I would do is inquire as to whether this information would be included in my transcripts and if so I would write a letter to the department head (cc the instructor) stating a case for my innocence and protesting the unsubstantiated charge. I would also demand that a copy of the letter be included in my transcript folder.
Most likely nothing can be done about the instructors decision but these steps will at least offer the student a measure of dignity and help to ensure that her integrity is protected. She will have demonstranted strength in the face of adversity to anyone that might look at her transcripts in future and offer a defense.
Finally, she should bless the entire horrible incident and move on. Life does not always dish up desert but this bad snack will, in the end, strenghten her character, determination and resolve if she stands up for herself.
Jack, as you know I retired from a community college district after over 25 years, with most of that time developing curriculum, certificates and degrees within the counseling department. While the CSU system may be different, most have common mandated state approved policies.
First off, she needs to get the catalog and find out what her Student Rights are. There should be a definition and the process for her dispute in the Student Services section. She should find the individual to assist her and go to that individual and lay out her case. That individual may by the department chair, vice president of student services or whomever. The counselor she talked to should have informed her of her rights. As a student she has rights too.
If she is not able to resolve the matter through the teachers supervisor or vice president of the school, have her take the course at Butte College or an accredited on-line course. Since she is a freshman she is taking a lower-division course and by using the CAN (Calif. Articulation Number system) she can find the equivalent course offered at all community colleges, CSU and UC in the state. CAN is a guarantee of the courses being accept by each and every college in their system to the other. If the course is not on the CAN list, which I highly believe it will be, she needs to see if it has a separate course-to-course agreement. Once she knows the course to take all she has to do is take it and have the transcript sent to Chico to have it apply toward her degree. Students do it all the time!
Her best bet is to resolve it at Chico and hope it doesnt mess up her educational plan and course sequence. If this is not clear or I can help off line, just give me a call.
Thanks Peggy and Tina, she will advised about your suggestions and if she is the good student I think she is, she will take them to heart.
Quentin, she might be a liberal, I’m not sure but so many young kids are…why does it matter?
Thanks OV, I’m hoping she will have computer access to read these comments – they’re all excellent.
Procedure? In my day, when you finished a test, you collected your belongings and took your finished test up to the instructor and left the class.
What’s more, I expect that the procedure was, in fact, explained to her … and she chose not to follow it.
I see quantities of this amongst the youngsters: “the rules don’t apply to me.” Heaven knows from whence they’ve gotten this idea? Their parents? Perhaps?
As it was explained to me she was acting within the norms she used prior to entering college. As to the rules being fulling explained and understood, I have no idea, maybe and maybe not. I just know I tend to believe her story given what I heard. I’m not easy to fool either.
Thanks for your input Libby.
Quentin, what a totally inappropriate and meaningless question to ask. And If I was a liberal, I would consider this as part of your reasoning process and you could never convince me your any type of possible candidate for any seat that requires thought.
Does anyone else find it ironic that the two bleeding-heart liberals threw this young woman under the bus with their comments, while the rest of us all tried to help her? Very clear who are concerned for the well-being of our fellow neighbors.
Yep…but, it’s not the first time thats happened.
I never got into the girl’s politics because it was not appropriate. We wouldn’t do that at a trial would we.
Quentin,
I must say I was actually considering supporting you after hearing some of the things you wrote in your blog. I was willing to look past the “trouble maker” image you seem to have acquired by stunts like your “Mad Hatter” Tea Party rally stunt. That is until I read you comment on Post Scripts, “A Coffee Shop Story; “Is she a liberal?”. With that one short comment you exposed yourself as one of the many people that comment on NorcalBlogs that really have nothing of substance to say and waste the opportunity for a productive discussion by blurting out something ridiculous just to incite people. Is that all you can say? Were you entertained by your comment? I hope so because it cost you a vote.
“I never got into the girl’s politics because it was not appropriate.”
But it’s all too likely that she was raised in a “liberal” household.
You musn’t think we’re all of a piece, we’re not. My nephew has had a “liberal” upbringing … but not so liberal that he would jeopardize his score on a recently taken PSAT by doing anything other than collecting his belongings, taking his test to the instructor, and leaving the room.
He has a strong sense of his obligations to his fellow beings, his society, his government. None of this: “my parents, school, society, the government exist to serve me” horsepucky. (Well, maybe his mother.) That is, actually, nothing “Liberal”.
But things have gotten so very, very muddled.
He has a strong sense of his obligations to his fellow beings, his society, his government. None of this: “my parents, school, society, the government exist to serve me” horsepucky. (Well, maybe his mother.) That is, actually, nothing “Liberal”.
Who does government exist to serve Libby?
And if believing that society doesn’t exist to serve the individual, then why do so many left leaning voters insist on subsidies of one type or another, while conservatives largely just want to be left alone by government?
Furthermore why do conservatives tend to give far more to charity if they are as you infer completely self centered?
As for this girl, I wasn’t in the classroom, and would certainly want to hear the teachers side of the story. But assuming that her version is accurate it seems to me an issue that one would definitely want to take higher.
Dont get me wrong I’m thrilled to see that Libby has now become such a fan of enforcing standards. I mean after she has repeatedly made excuses for drug addicts, criminals, dictators, terrorists, etc. I’m glad to see that finally she has found an issue where she thinks personal responsibility should be enforced.
Something tells me that she assumed that since Jack brought up this story the young women must be a conservative and therefore should be punished. Because as Libby has made abundantly clear this is nothing in this world she despises quite as much as a hard working, independent conservative.
I just want everyone that is still following this thread to know that I posted my comment about Quentin losing my vote on Quentin’s own blog at the same time I posted it here. The story I posted it on still reads “No comments”. I guess he only prints the comments that support him and his ideas!
At PS we take pride in receiving constructive criticism and dealing with opposing points of view. Even if it makes us look bad…we’ll post it here.
Nick! It’s been so long!
“…so many left leaning voters insist on subsidies of one type or another, ….”
Same reason those right leaning corporations do … and when their team is in power they make out like bandits!
Have made out like bandits … witness the recent economic collapse. Are still making out like bandits … witness the OA mitigating, militating and generally, entirely, obliterating our banking corporations’ very poor business decisions to the very best of its ability, so as to keep the 10 percent unemployment figure from becoming 30 percent.
Pisses me off, monumentally … but 10 percent is better than 30. We could, still, easily be at 30.
But going on from here, this is where we see whether the nation has any real character left. But I already know it doesn’t. I was appalled: I truly couldn’t believe the number of citizens in this state who accepted the $100 blandishments of that vulture bank, Chase.
Did you have WaMu branches in Chico? When Chase slung their banners over the old signage, you all should have slung garlic wreaths over the banners, and told ’em to put their $100 debit cards where the sun don’t shine … but you didn’t.