Anonymous wrote:The teacher gave the class essay topics to work on for almost two weeks.
DS worked very hard writing and rewriting and editing until he was content with the final draft. The teacher chose one out of many for the final exam.
DS wrote it during the final test hoping for an A.
Instead he got a zero. The teacher is claiming he plagiarized but is not giving any specifications even though I asked for it various times. Without saying anything concrete, the school wants him to take the test again even though he'll be going out of town and out of the country for the summer.
Aren't they supposed to disclose the details of this supposed "crime" as the assistant principal very eloquently put it?

Take the essay and run it through TURNITIN, if it's negative, then you have grounds for argueing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The teacher gave the class essay topics to work on for almost two weeks.
DS worked very hard writing and rewriting and editing until he was content with the final draft. The teacher chose one out of many for the final exam.
DS wrote it during the final test hoping for an A.

I don't understand. If you son worked on an essay for two weeks, what was chosen for the final exam? The essay the kids were working on?

How did he write the essay during the final test? Was it the same one he'd been working on for 2 weeks?

I'm confused.

Sounds like this is likely a high school class -- I would guess AP or IB-- run in a style similar to a college course.

In many college courses, the professor gives several essay topics that are thematic and broadly cover the material of the course, and informs students that their final exam topic will be selected from among these.

Using their course texts, class notes, and outside sources as applicable/appropriate, students are expected to prepare answers for all topics by the time of the exam. When they sit for the exam, one essay topic will be given, and students are expected to demonstrate their knowledge of course material by completing the essay topic during the exam time using whatever they remember of their preparation.

Depending on how good a student's memory is and the quality of their revision for the exam, it's entirely possible that a well-prepared student could reproduce under exam conditions an essay extremely similar to the essay they wrote in advance when revising that topic.

That sounds like what probably happened in this instance, based on the way OP's post was written.

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.

The commonly-available computer programs are wildly inaccurate. A random collection of words - entered in a random order - can generate a "hit," if all the words are related to a particular common, garden-variety topic about which there has been a great deal of writing. Question your DS carefully, run the essay through a search or two, and then confront the school. Be prepared to show school all the papers etc used to prepare and draft. BE CAREFUL -- they may attempt to induce your DS into a false confession -- schools do that ALL the time.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, keep defending your son and push back against the school! When i was in middle school, a teacher accused me of cheating on a report that i had worked really, really hard on -- she thought that i wasnt smart enough to have done such a good job. It meant the workd to me that my parents (and other teachers who knew i was smart) stood up for me.

That happened to me in middle school, too! To the teacher's credit, I never really had great grades. The report she accused me of copying (she said she found a very similar one on the internet) happened to be something I was really passionate about. She did end up giving me credit but it still was upsetting.

How old is your son? This is a great time to teach him to stand up for himself. I am surprised that so many parents would do this for their kid.

Anonymous wrote:There are computer programs that run the work through to see if it is plagiarized from anything online. Once you read something doing research, it's very hard to paraphrase it. Why don't you run his essay through one of those programs and see what pops up.

My niece and my cousin are college professors and use these type of proograms all the time. It's amazing how often they find that the work is plagarized. This is a good suggestion for OP.

Like hell my son would be retaking that test.

They either prove their point or grade the paper accurately.

You are entitled to a copy of his test and you must demand proof from the school that he did indeed plagiarize. You can also officially complain to the Head at the way the teacher handled it, accusing the student without providing immediate proof.

My 9 year old found it hard at the beginning of the year to read a source and then not spit it back out word for word - he has an excellent word memory. However for his last essays he managed to paraphrase adequately. His style does vary a lot because it's inspired by whatever he's reading at the moment, which can be a red flag for teachers. Thank goodness they know him well enough by now!

Good luck.

Set up a meeting with the school - in person - to review the essay and discuss the plagiarized sections.

Be prepared to respond if they have evidence of it that is indisputable.

Is it just that this essay was much better than previous work (cheating) or that there are specific sections that were lifted and not appropriately cited.

^ yup

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd take the suggestion about copying some of into to a google search and see what comes up. Hate for you to fight to only find out your son did cheat.

It's not necessarily cheating if it does flag something. Like I said, it's very hard to paraphrase once you've read something, and it's not like the kids are using their own actual research -- by research, we mean they are using the work of others.

Even if you paraphrase, you have to cite the owner of the idea. That's what plagiarism is: Stealing someone's words or ideas. It's not just the verbatim reproduction of wording.

The easiest way to avoid the plagiarism charge is just to attribute.

Anonymous wrote:I'd take the suggestion about copying some of into to a google search and see what comes up. Hate for you to fight to only find out your son did cheat.

It's not necessarily cheating if it does flag something. Like I said, it's very hard to paraphrase once you've read something, and it's not like the kids are using their own actual research -- by research, we mean they are using the work of others.

You can also use this to check:

http://www.grammarly.com/?q=plagiarism&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Search&utm_content=32049132966&utm_term=software%20anti%20plagiarism&matchtype=b&placement=&network=g&gclid=CjkKEQjwzv-cBRD_oY2PouKVvMIBEiQAKuGNC6W86EQSpqBOLj1egrtK_FfGjm5joSTKv7LWORjNn97w_wcB

How old is DS/What grade?

Was this test completed in class? So he wrote the essay from memory? Was he allowed to have notes with him?

Have you seen the essay? Do you have a copy of it?

Have you googled specific phrases/sentences from his essay? Has anything popped up?