I am a bit hesitant to wade into this issue, because it is the stuff of Head of School nightmares. It reminds me of an incident in the high school I led, many years before my coming, in which a senior, now a very well-known correspondent (formerly of ABC and now on CNN), as editor of the school yearbook figured out a way to manipulate the pictures so that if the pages were refolded correctly, a giant [obscene picture] appeared. The Head of School decided to allow him to graduate, but he did not get his diploma until he finished a certain number of hours of community service. Now this certainly was not cheating, but it was offensive to the school’s culture and image. In the case that has been presented to us about cheating I would say there are a number of options:
1. Cheating is cheating is cheating. If the school has a clear policy against cheating and the facts are provable that both students have been involved in cheating, then they probably should be expelled and not graduate.
2. If there is some mitigating circumstance, such as the one portrayed to us, then perhaps the students could be barred from graduation or not receive their diplomas at graduation and have to do a certain amount of community service, after being retested with a different exam before they would get their diplomas.
3. If, however, the school wants to maintain its standards and the cheating scandal is known by other students and their parents, it leaves little room left but to disqualify these two students from graduating. Perhaps they can make up the courses involved in another setting, transferring credits or after doing the courses and community service, receiving a diploma sometime later from the school.
These kind of infractions are the most painful that a head of school can confront. They cause unbelievable anguish on many levels and there probably is no easy way out or clear solution for the fallout that the situation will precipitate. Hurting for this Head of School…
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2016 07:00PM by mlb.
