# overreacting? a rant



## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

my son, who has aspergers got a very good scholarship to a really hard school... 

well... earlier in the semester, his roommate when postal. I posted about it when that happened. Anyway, later the school required him to "prove" that he wasn't involved with breaking stuff in the room even though campus security and the police were involved with what happened to that kid and they all knew that ds didn't do anything. but housing is a different department, so he had to go around getting "Proof" from everybody that he didn't do anything so he didn't have to pay for damages.

Then, he has had trouble with writing his whole life b/c of the aspergers. Anyway, we found a book written by an english prof at the school and he read it so he would know what they wanted in a paper. Then he put his outline up on a prezi (an online presentation software which he also uses as a graphic organizer). Well, the paper was so much better that the prof suspected he cheated (though he hasn't done anything to warrant suspicion of dishonesty). the prof used a web crawler to find any plagiarized materials. DS set up the prezi account under a funny pseudonym (a thing his dad and he do b/c they find it amusing). So, the prof thought this other kid (his pseudonym) did the work and ds "copied it word for word" from there! I helped him edit that paper on that prezi site b/c he was trying to learn this new structure, so I KNOW he did not cheat! The work the prof is talking about is my son's, only under a different name! Well... when he explained it and showed the site to the prof, (which included not only that paper, but others, and visual study guides for a bio class and other stuff related specifically to ds's classes; basically it is my son's online note keeper and organizer that he made for himself.) the prof realized he was wrong and ds did not cheat. BUT he had already turned the information over to the academic dean. Now ds has to go "prove" to the dean that he didn't cheat even though the prof concedes that he didn't! UG! That's like the govt bringing someone up on charges, realizing they got the wrong guy and making them go to trial anyway! Even in federal court you are "innocent until proven guilty"... at school, it seems you are "guilty until you not only prove to your prof you are innocent, but after you have done that, you have to keep proving it again and again to other people!" 
I'm kind of mad right now! All he is guilty of is trying to learn how to write better and creating documents under a silly name! The prezi acct is connected to his email address, so I don't even understand what there is to prove! It is obvious that it is his! am I over reacting here? UG! just ug!

Cindyc.


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## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

one thing is for sure, schools better get used to kids keeping notes online in "the cloud" or on a google drive or what have you. many kids do. They don't want to risk losing it to hard drive failures and the like. Very few of these tech savvy kids are purely "notebook note takers" anymore.

FWIW,
Cindyc.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Even out in the "real world" you really are guilty until proven innocent. 

I'm sorry he is going through this. But it's not any different than how colleges have been acting lately. Too many incidents going unreported and students getting credit even after cheating had been proven. But I applaud your son for pushing forward and proving himself. I hope the remaining years of his college experience go much smoother than this one has.


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## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

Danaus29 said:


> Even out in the "real world" you really are guilty until proven innocent.
> 
> I'm sorry he is going through this. But it's not any different than how colleges have been acting lately. Too many incidents going unreported and students getting credit even after cheating had been proven. But I applaud your son for pushing forward and proving himself. I hope the remaining years of his college experience go much smoother than this one has.


I feel like he did prove it to the prof. So I am not sure why he still has to go through this process. The prof knows he didn't cheat and is giving him the grade he earned without penalty, so to have to complete a hearing with the dean on it... I just think that is wrong! In the middle of finals no less, when they already know the is not guilty, just to say they did their process!

UG!
Cindyc.


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## Ed Mashburn (Jun 24, 2013)

Cindy- I am sorry that you and your son are having to go through this. Please don't hate the prof too much. Very often, there are very stringent and restrictive procedures dictated by the college when plagiarism is suspected.
It is a bad thing when a student is suspected of cheating when the work is too good- but the very first thing I tell my students when we start composing papers is to maintain their notes- in whatever form, If you have your notes, you have your proof.
I do agree that this plagiarism policy may need some further refinement- seems a bit tight to me. Hang in- it gets better after the first semester.
Ed Mashburn


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

Unless you've showed up in some dean's office, armed and hostile, you're not over-reacting. 

You have a right to be extremely irritated and frustrated. I sincerely hope they're this conscious with _all_ students and not just kids who "shouldn't do this well." And hopefully the hearing with the dean will be nothing more than just showing up, the prof. states that it's OK, and the dean offers an apology to your son.


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## mistletoad (Apr 17, 2003)

I understand your frustration, but I firmly believe that a good part of the value of a college education is learning to deal with unfair situations and other obstacles. I have two sons in college - they have ridiculous obstacles put in their way at every turn - it frustrates them and me, but I love seeing them develop strategies to overcome each and every one of them.

That said, all of my sons' high school essays and assignments have been web checked for plagiarism so I expect this is standard policy rather than just because your son wrote a good essay. To avoid any future problems I would suggest he pay the $5 a month to make his prezi account private.


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## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

Ed Mashburn said:


> It is a bad thing when a student is suspected of cheating when the work is too good- but the very first thing I tell my students when we start composing papers is to maintain their notes- in whatever form, If you have your notes, you have your proof.
> Ed Mashburn


What the prof found online that got him accused to plagarism was his notes. He is a visual thinker, so he put his notes in an online graphic organizer type of a thing.


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## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

mistletoad said:


> To avoid any future problems I would suggest he pay the $5 a month to make his prezi account private.


Yea. He plans to do that. The prof said it would have been really bad if some other kid had found his notes online and turned Austin's paper in before Austin did. He hadn't thought of that. It could happen I suppose. But he will make it private, just in case.


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## Wolfy-hound (May 5, 2013)

Just because he has to go see the dean is no reason to assume the dean won't get the info from the professor and know ahead of time that it's a formality, simply because the paperwork got turned in and it's protocol. 

Your son will have to deal with a lot of practices that don't seem to be all that logical. Time is past when everything is set out for him, so this will be one more incident that helps teach how to deal with weird situations. After all, he did learn several helpful things already, like how his online notes could have led to someone stealing his paper, how to collect information and get it to the right authority, etc. 

Instead of thinking of it as unfair and stupid... think of it as one more learning experience. Everything in life isn't good or bad, we only think of them as good or bad.


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## K.B. (Sep 7, 2012)

Maybe try and turn this frustration/hurdle into an opportunity... if he handles himself well during this process and the meetings, he can try and secure relationships with the professor and dean to provide future letters of recommendation. These kind of connections can turn out to be very valuable down the road.


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## Tango (Aug 19, 2002)

I am an ex-professor and also an ex-homeschool mom. profs have at least one college sponsored tech site to uncover plagiarism and at some schools putting each paper through that at some point in the semester - or every paper - is a requirement. it is fairly straight forward for a prof to find plagiarism. it is quite easy to discover. it is not a lengthy disciplinary process unless the plagiarism is proven, which is done at the beginning and not at the end of the process. 

a professor can get a very good feeling for a student's writing style and when that style suddenly changes, it is a red flag that there is either plagiarism or collusion (when someone writes the essay for the student or over"edits" it.) there are websites that charge for writing essays and this is not plagiarism and it is harder to prove. the only way is when the professor is suddenly alerted to a change in the student's writing style and this would begin a long process of investigation. i had a student on a sport scholarship in my class. it was his third attempt at the class and he would lose the scholarship if he couldn't pass it. his writing was very poor, on an elementary grade level like 3rd or 4th grade. he was failing, when his parents hired a tutor and suddenly he turned in a college level paper. i scheduled a conference with the tutor and the parents and explained how easy it is for a professor to spot changes in style (not improvements in syntax or grammar but styel changes which are not normal improvements) they did have to prove to me that there was no collusion. and they weren't angry; they were scared, apparently the student was very good at his sport. the next paper was far better. it was an honest "c" paper. clearly he was being helped but he was doing his own writing. two more papers showed little improvement over the "c" paper. the proof came at the end of the semester when he had to write in the classroom (the first paper of the semester is always in the classroom and this is what gives the professor the basis on which to assess the student's style). He wrote another "c" paper which for him was a huge achievement and really winning the battle for what must have been a long distressful situation with English class. I somehow lost his early grades and was only able to grade based on his later work. he passed the class with a "c". 

colleges, aren't out to fail students. they have good resources and tools to grade fairly and weed out those who want to buy their way to a degree which cheapens the degree for everyone. unfortunately this means some students are given undue suspicion during the semester. the end of semester essay should absolve your son. 

i taught in high school also, the same school i pulled my son out of in 10th grade. high schools are different- they have to involve the dean in just about everything. i have to say that parents were sometimes more of a problem than the students themselves in high school.


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## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

He had his meeting with the dean. They admit that no plagiarism happened. It wasn't all bad. Bla.

Cindyc.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

I'm glad it worked out. Although it doesn't seem fair your son is learning how to handle himself in stupid, not his fault, situations. He'll face many more as he moves out further into the real world.

And as was stated before by another poster, once it was reported to the dean the dean was required to investigate. Just the way it is.


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