Thread: Teacher Resigns in Protest Over Plagarism in Piper, Kansas

I didn't see the NBC story, but I did read the on-line news story, maybe a week or so ago, when there was a lengthy (and somewhat heated) discussion of the incident on Teachers.Net. If I remember correctly, one non-teacher and one former teacher supported the school board while everyone else applauded the teacher for having the guts to resign.

The way I see it, the principal (who's in the school daily and who knows the course, the teacher, the students, and the situation much better than any of us -- and also better than than the school board members) supported the teacher's decisions regarding the zeros and the weighting of the assignment. So did the superintendent. Only the school board, a group of non-educators who are not in the school on a regular basis and whose positions depend on making voters happy, second-guessed the teacher's professional decision and the principal's and superintendent's professional opinions -- and then they gave no reason whatsoever for doing so, other than "parents complained."

The school board apparently caved into parental pressure. I hope they find out that teachers -- and parents of students who DO follow the rules -- can apply just as much pressure. And if this happens, I hope the story stays in the news so that school board members around the country will learn that caving into parental complaints isn't always the route of least resistance.

All this, of course, is IMHO only.

I completely agree with the teacher who resigned. There was a lengthy article in yesterday's New York Times, too. [url=http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/14/education/14CHEA.html]School Cheating Scandal Tests a Town's Values[/url]

I'm outraged by the parents' reaction, but it's typical: my child shouldn't be treated like other people who do wrong things.

I'm particularly concerned about the message that was sent to the children who didn't plaigerize. They actually got punished for doing the work the right way, because the project was suddenly only 30% of their grade.

I'm glad there's a lot of national attention; I'm glad the rest of the teachers are considering resigning; I'm glad that the town's reputation and property values are suffering. That sounds harsh and vindictive, but this is something all of you have been teaching me about classroom management: there must be consequences for breaking the rules. This is the only way people like the parents and the school officials who caved will learn not to do it again. They chose to try and prevent the proper consequences from attaching to their children's behavior, so now they have to deal with the consequences of their own behavior.

I both read the brouhaha on t.net, and saw the story on NBC. I can't believe the school board caved into parents by overruling the teacher, the principal and the superintendent.

I agree with mata. The town has chosen its bed and now it must lie in it. If they lose the bulk of their teachers, they are going to have a very hard time replacing them, based on a complete lack of support with which they will be faced. The board completely undermined any authority she had in the classroom and rendered her a completely ineffective teacher.

The real losers are the kids. They learned that if you have a problem with a teacher at school, Mommy & Daddy can go way above the teacher's head and get it fixed for them.

I am willing to concede that when I was in HS, probably didn't know enough about plagarism to avoid it completely, and may have inadvertantly plagarized. But I can guarantee that my parents would've stood behind the teacher, and I would have learned a very important lesson, as well as more biology when I had to retake it.

Regardless, with the board's action, they made life much harder for every teacher in the district and in the long run, have made it harder for their children to get the education they deserve.

Piper is merely the touchstone for what is becoming a national debate on morality.

We watch the news and learn how Enron executives cashed in their stocks and made BILLIONS while all of their employees who were under age 50 were forbidden to sell their shares. We learned how Enron executives vastly increased their wealth while most of the rank and file saw their retirement savings wiped out.

How are we as a nation supposed to interpret this?

We tell the children that crime doesn't pay ... but nearly every metropolitan area in this country seems to have a place where gang bangers sell drugs. I spent five years teaching at an inner city school and even at the elementary level, I heard stories about how students "lived" to join a gang so that they'd have money for fine gold jewelry and designer jeans.

After finding one of my fourth grade students with a roll of twenty dollar bills, I was told by a suddenly defiant student to "F--k off and mind my own business." The student proceeded to tell me that his father was a chump because he worked hard for nothing and had nothing to show for it. (The child was arrested four months later for dealing drugs on a school bus).

At the Winter Olympics where skill and sportsmanship is supposed to matter, the games have been marred by accusations that the French and the Russians traded votes that cost a Canadian skating team the gold.

What messages do children learn from stories like these?

I wonder ... and I worry.

David

Well, being close to Piper, Kansas, it has been interesting to see the results of this long debated issue. I heard the results in passing as to what happened in the town, so if I miss anything please fill me in. The teacher who resigned said she had mixed feelings about the results.

The board had to pay fines of $250 a piece, and they had an open session with the public. I don't think they revoked their decision to change grades, but they did apologize for the situation. Now the board has to write specific guidelines on plagarism.

As I read David's thoughts on the message we send our children, I have to agree. Our kids are beginning to see that things which were once horrible to society are now taken care of by mom or dad and aren't so bad...I wish accountability and responsibility was more of a priority for us as a society.

I've had an amazing amount of thievery in my room this year. One boy in particular was caught by his parents. He had to confess what he did, and mom had to replace the things taken. However, my student didn't have to work to replace the items. He didn't have to think about it again after he apologized. I don't think kids should ever have to wallow in their transgressions, but I think this could have been a great learning experience for him. Teachers can only do so much to make this happen...

An update on this topic, from today's NY Times website:

KANSAS: PARENTS WANT SUPERINTENDENT FIRED Parents in Piper are circulating petitions demanding the ouster of the school superintendent, Dr. Michael O. Rooney, who ordered a biology teacher not to fail 28 students who plagiarized their work for a botany project in the fall. The group, Parents Involved in Education, is also collecting signatures to recall three of the seven board members of the 1,300-student district.
Jodi Wilgoren (NYT)