Even as early as 20 years back, cheating was something considered hush-hush. Shady dealings of answer sheets, notes passed under desks, stuff you couldn’t talk about with anyone other than your accomplice out of fear of intense repercussions in the form of detention, or worse. Now, with the introduction of technology like smartwatches and AI, cheating has become easier than ever, and yet, people hardly face the consequences of their actions.
The cheating policy has been adjusted with the times to reflect these changes. The honor code does make provisions for “using unauthorized devices during a test or quiz,” but the enforcement of the consequences for cheating leaves much to be desired.
So, what is actually supposed to happen when somebody is caught cheating? Well, there is no specific action given in the Student Code of Conduct for Hillsborough County, nor is there a section about academic honesty in general, but according to the Robinson IB academic honesty policy, all cheating will be handled by the individual classroom teachers. They are responsible for deciding a proper punishment, such as redoing the assignment or receiving a zero.
As for consequences outside of that specific classroom, those are supposed to be handled by the Honor Council, with the consequences being a certain number of service hours based on the severity of the offence, and on the fourth offence being caught cheating, removal from the IB program. An additional consequence in very severe cases could constitute a report of academic dishonesty sent to colleges or scholarship programs.
Here are the issues with this policy. Firstly, this can only really apply to testing. Any homework assignments completed with the use of AI or help from another student — given that it isn’t directly copied — would be very hard to detect, and even harder to prove, meaning that, besides the most egregious of instances, they will fly under the radar. And, even then, most teachers don’t bother to enforce this policy because of its epidemic nature; they will just give the student a disapproving glare.
Secondly, a lot of teachers don’t even actively monitor classrooms during test times. Barring standardized testing such as AP exams or EOCs, teachers often utilize class time during a test to catch up on grading, emails or even just leave for moments. This creates an atmosphere that allows students to believe that they won’t get caught, and oftentimes, they don’t. This has the consequence of making it so that oftentimes when students are caught, it comes after dozens of other instances of cheating when the teacher wasn’t paying attention, which leads to the next point.
Four chances are far, far too many. Although it might sound harsh, the odds of a student’s first time cheating being the time they get caught are slim. This gives them the opportunity to learn from the mistake they made that got them caught in the first place, and “improve” on their cheating. The first offence’s consequences need to be immediate and more severe than a few hours of community service, which most students do anyway. That policy is far too lax to be effective in discouraging cheating.
Because of the lack of enforcement of cheating policies, it has created a culture of mutually assured silence in which nobody says anything about cheating out of fear of incriminating themselves in the eyes of their peers, the majority of whom cheat in some way or another. This perpetuates a self-fulfilling cycle where cheaters aren’t persecuted, do well on assignments and then continue to cheat. They need to see that their actions have consequences and that they can’t get away with it every time. It’s also incredibly unfair to students who actually are honest about their work, because cheaters can mess up the curves and averages for the whole class.
This response needs to come from a place of ensuring that teachers are properly monitoring in the first place and aren’t letting cheaters get away with it out of a “they’ll do it anyway” mindset, and from an increase in consequences and making those consequences known. Robinson needs to crack down on cheating before it becomes even more endemic and commonplace than it already is.
