This is why we don't sweep things under the rug.
When I was student teaching, I somehow managed to get in trouble for pointing out the plagiarism of two different students. One student had clearly, CLEARLY ripped off Shel Silverstein--down to the very drawing itself, the work was the same as the master poet's. Considering the assignment was to revise a poem the students' had written previously (which, by the way, no other student mis-interpreted in the entire school), it was pretty obvious that there was a negative intention behind his work. If he'd REVISED that poem, then maybe I could see the confusion--but he hadn't. Just copied it down, word for word--except he managed to screw up the spelling. Anyway.
I turned it into the Assistant Principal, since they tend to handle most of the discipline. I heard nothing back for awhile.
Then there was the Star-Student. She was bright; she was the apple of my school's eye. She was going places. She was also stealing the work of multiple people all over the internet. I dropped her anthology off with the same A.P. and mentioned that 8 of her 10 poems were ripped off deliberately from the internet (confirmed by a few Google searches), at which point A.P. stopped me. She told me that it had been a huge deal--which I thought was a good thing and started to say so--but then I realized she was upset with ME, not the previous student plagiarizer.
Shel-Silverstein-Ripper-Offer's mother had been furious. She yelled and ranted and threatened to remove the student from the school (which I thought might be a positive thing, as this school's systems clearly weren't working for this student, since he was sent out of class nearly every other day and had received out-of-school suspensions TWICE since I'd started three months earlier), that she'd sat next to him as he'd worked, etcetera. How dare I accuse her student of cheating?
Essentially, the A.P. told me to back off Star-Student because of Shel-Silverstein-Ripper-Offer's fiasco and lay low. "I" had caused enough problems for that school. "I" had been enough of a disturbance.
I gave the student a zero on her Anthology and pulled her into a side-office in class. I started to ask her about her anthology--what had the process of creating it been like? Where had she gotten her ideas? At that point, she started to hyperventilate and claimed she couldn't breathe. Since this student has asthma, I sent her to the front office before she passed out in front of me, and left a sticky note on her desk to find me when she was ready to talk about her anthology--she never did.
Two weeks passed; I left her another sticky-note. No response. My student teaching was rapidly coming to a close, so I decided to give her a gentle reminder.
"Star-Student," I murmured, "You are too smart to steal other people's stuff." At that point, she paled visibly.
"What are you talking about...?" she asked me, stricken.
"You know what I'm talking about," I said quickly, since other students were beginning to raise their hands for assistance. "You're smarter than that; please make better decisions in the future."
"Wha...?" she asked, shaken.
I said no more--she knew she'd plagiarized. I thought she was still upset over that, but then we had the weekend. I thought of it no more.
I showed up to school on Monday, having completed student teaching but started a sub job at the same school, when the administration called us together. We were having a brief meeting--a student had been caught stealing equipment.
As it turned out, Star-Student had, over a period of months, stolen over $5,000 worth of technology. They were filing for expulsion; the police had to be called. As an adult, she would be facing serious, serious charges--thank goodness she was only thirteen.
And all I could think was, if they had ONLY talked to her a few weeks earlier, perhaps she would have owned up to her misdeeds herself. Perhaps she would have returned them, reputation untarnished. If ONLY they hadn't made light of the situation. If ONLY they hadn't swept things under the rug.
Teachers, parents, good people of the world, I beg you: hold your children accountable for their misdeeds so that they do not spiral out of control.
I turned it into the Assistant Principal, since they tend to handle most of the discipline. I heard nothing back for awhile.
Then there was the Star-Student. She was bright; she was the apple of my school's eye. She was going places. She was also stealing the work of multiple people all over the internet. I dropped her anthology off with the same A.P. and mentioned that 8 of her 10 poems were ripped off deliberately from the internet (confirmed by a few Google searches), at which point A.P. stopped me. She told me that it had been a huge deal--which I thought was a good thing and started to say so--but then I realized she was upset with ME, not the previous student plagiarizer.
Shel-Silverstein-Ripper-Offer's mother had been furious. She yelled and ranted and threatened to remove the student from the school (which I thought might be a positive thing, as this school's systems clearly weren't working for this student, since he was sent out of class nearly every other day and had received out-of-school suspensions TWICE since I'd started three months earlier), that she'd sat next to him as he'd worked, etcetera. How dare I accuse her student of cheating?
Essentially, the A.P. told me to back off Star-Student because of Shel-Silverstein-Ripper-Offer's fiasco and lay low. "I" had caused enough problems for that school. "I" had been enough of a disturbance.
I gave the student a zero on her Anthology and pulled her into a side-office in class. I started to ask her about her anthology--what had the process of creating it been like? Where had she gotten her ideas? At that point, she started to hyperventilate and claimed she couldn't breathe. Since this student has asthma, I sent her to the front office before she passed out in front of me, and left a sticky note on her desk to find me when she was ready to talk about her anthology--she never did.
Two weeks passed; I left her another sticky-note. No response. My student teaching was rapidly coming to a close, so I decided to give her a gentle reminder.
"Star-Student," I murmured, "You are too smart to steal other people's stuff." At that point, she paled visibly.
"What are you talking about...?" she asked me, stricken.
"You know what I'm talking about," I said quickly, since other students were beginning to raise their hands for assistance. "You're smarter than that; please make better decisions in the future."
"Wha...?" she asked, shaken.
I said no more--she knew she'd plagiarized. I thought she was still upset over that, but then we had the weekend. I thought of it no more.
I showed up to school on Monday, having completed student teaching but started a sub job at the same school, when the administration called us together. We were having a brief meeting--a student had been caught stealing equipment.
As it turned out, Star-Student had, over a period of months, stolen over $5,000 worth of technology. They were filing for expulsion; the police had to be called. As an adult, she would be facing serious, serious charges--thank goodness she was only thirteen.
And all I could think was, if they had ONLY talked to her a few weeks earlier, perhaps she would have owned up to her misdeeds herself. Perhaps she would have returned them, reputation untarnished. If ONLY they hadn't made light of the situation. If ONLY they hadn't swept things under the rug.
Teachers, parents, good people of the world, I beg you: hold your children accountable for their misdeeds so that they do not spiral out of control.