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[quote=Anonymous]It sounds like your DS is a good student and you have ample evidence to allow you to be confident that the charges are false and he did not plagiarize. In that case, I would *not* let the charges stand or give in to the retake the school wants, I would help DS to vigorously fight these charges. In our home, integrity, effort, doing one’s best work, respect, and justice are core values. DS adhered to all of them but is not being treated the same way by the school in return, and that would not be OK with me. Plagiarism is a serious offense and I would not allow false charges of it to stain my DS’s record & reputation. I would show him how to appropriately fight false charges against him, and stand up for himself when unjustly accused by someone in a position of authority.

I second many suggestions PPs have already made.

I would absolutely set up a meeting with the school and insist that the teacher disclose the reasons behind the charges and allow DS to state his case. The first meeting I would request would be with the teacher, department head (if applicable) and assistant principal with whom you indicated in your post you've already spoken regarding this. If your DS is in elementary, I would start out the meeting to set the tone and then have DS present his defense, after which I would clarify and strengthen any points he made that might not have been clear. If he is in middle school, I would have DS do the talking from the beginning of the meeting and I would only step in to clarify at the end if his arguments were being badly received and/or his evidence discounted. If he is in high school, I would offer to attend the meeting as his supporter/witness but I wouldn’t get involved in the discussion at this stage. In all cases, I would help DS prepare at home before the meeting.

Does he have any of his drafts? I teach the kids to save each draft separately and when they start editing to name the file with the next higher version number. If he can print off a few drafts that show his writing process, that should go a long way towards settling this.

Even if he only has the final version of the essay he wrote over that two week period, if it is typed in MS word  there is a way to see when the draft was last edited and I think there’s a way to see the edit history. That would show that he wrote the thing. Then, I would ask him what the result would be if I put random parts of his essay in quotes and put that in google -- if as I expect he says it won’t be a problem, I would do so. If his essay were plagiarized, this would likely yield results showing where it was plagiarized from, and while the absence of evidence for the charges is not the same as proof of innocence I would still document the search results because I would consider them to paint a compelling picture. I would compile all of that info plus the essay he wrote and memorized, print it all out and have the info on a flash drive, and take that info to the meeting. Point out to the school that it is nearly impossible to prove a negative but you have provided a great deal of circumstantial evidence demonstrating innocence of the charges. Further point out that a cornerstone of American justice is that one is innocent until proven guilty – request that they demonstrate some evidence or basis upon which these charges were founded. Perhaps ask them to show you the turnitin results for the essay, or provide for comparison the source document from which it was allegedly plagiarized.

If they try to avoid this and just fail him anyway or try to force him to take the test higher I would escalate to the next level in the administrative chain of command until the charges against DS were dropped. If this is a private school, I would seriously consider having DS not return next year given the school’s apparent attitude towards due process in academic matters.
Good luck to you and your DS as you deal with this unfair and inconvenient situation. Please post back and let us know how it goes.
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