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Parents sue school when son is punished for cheating
oh, fuckadoodle-doo. Sorry, azzhole-- if your kid has to cheat to perform in a class, he doesn't belong in the class. Finit.
Jack Berghouse doesn't dispute that his son, a sophomore at Sequoia High School, copied someone else's homework. But the Redwood City father believes the school district was wrong to kick his teenager out of an English honors class for the offense, and his decision to sue has embroiled the family in a public, opinionated debate.
"I'm getting a lot of hate calls at my office," said Berghouse, who practices family law. "I had no freaking idea this would happen."
Berghouse's son and three other students were removed from a sophomore honors English class at Sequoia in Redwood City for copying and sharing homework. In response, Berghouse filed a suit last week in San Mateo County Superior Court, claiming his son's due process rights were violated. It names as defendants the Sequoia Union High School District, Superintendent James Lianides and Sequoia High School Principal Bonnie Hansen.
The suit, which seeks to force the school to readmit Berghouse's son to the honors class, drew immediate criticism.
"I'm outraged that the parents would go to that extreme," said Diana Guinard, a Novato mother of four teenagers. "I expect the teachers to hold the kids accountable. Anything less would destroy the lessons I teach at home."
And in an informal online reader poll by this newspaper, 84 percent of about 300 respondents said students should not get a second chance when caught cheating.
Even though high schools threaten strict punishment for dishonesty, cheating on both homework and tests among college-bound students is widespread in the Bay Area. However, expulsion from a class for a first offense appears to be a more severe consequence than what many local schools practice.
Berghouse's son, who is not being named because he is a minor, had signed an "Academic Honesty Pledge" at the beginning of the school year that declares cheating is grounds for immediate removal from the advanced-level program; his mother also had signed it.
However, Berghouse said, the school has conflicting policies; there is one stating that a student will be removed from class only after a second plagiarism offense.
In his son's case, the students had to write in journals for homework. In March, two of the students were caught with copied entries from two others. Afterward, Berghouse's son posted a Facebook entry protesting the "tyranny" and injustice of the punishment. As a result, he was called into the school office.
All four students involved in the incident were transferred to regular English classes. Berghouse believes the punishment is disproportionate to the offense and will jeopardize the academic future of his son, who he said has a chance at attending an Ivy League school.
With the stakes and pressure high for students to get into selective colleges, children's grades and courses have become paramount for many parents.
"There is the possibility this will cause permanent harm. What university will it keep him out of? Will that have far-ranging consequences in what kind of job he can get?" Berghouse said.
"He knows it's wrong," he said of his son. "You cannot imagine the mental and emotional penalty that has been inflicted upon him. We've offered several penalties, anything other than being kicked out of the English program."
The parents suggested, for example, that their son could work as an after-school teacher's assistant for the rest of the school year, Berghouse said.
The sophomore was enrolled in the International College Advancement Program, or ICAP, designed by the high school to prepare students for the demanding International Baccalaureate curriculum offered to juniors and seniors.
Lianides, Sequoia's superintendent, said Thursday that he doesn't believe that cheating is a big problem in the district, but that the school staff last year decided to adopt a stronger "zero tolerance" policy, given the standing of the IB program.
"Students that successfully complete the full program as juniors and seniors are awarded a special diploma at graduation and typically gain admission to very competitive universities," he wrote earlier in an email.
"If cheating or plagiarism is not strongly discouraged, then it will reward students who do not follow the rules, devalue the diploma, and take away from the students that put in the long hours and hard work necessary to earn the special recognition that comes with an International Baccalaureate diploma."
Sequoia Principal Hansen informed the family that the student would be allowed to participate in the International Baccalaureate program next year, with no mention of the cheating on his record. But he would still be left out of the advanced studies sophomore English class.
The family rejected that offer. By drafting a confusing and poorly written honesty pledge, Berghouse said, Sequoia teachers have cheated far more.
School officials, including Lianides, told the family they didn't have the right to appeal and denied their request for a school board review of the dispute, according to the lawsuit.
The family is still trying to get their son back into the class, although the school year ends June 8. A motion to temporarily halt the punishment will be heard on May 17, Berghouse said.
"I'm doing this for the other kids at Sequoia," he said.
Re: Parents sue school when son is punished for cheating
Dumbass kid doesn't have a chance to get into an Ivy League school if he's stupid enough to get caught cheating on journals. Jeez.
Dad's a tool. The End.
Yes,I'm smiling...I'm a marathoner!
Bloggy McBloggerson
CO Nestie Award Winner-Prettiest Brain-Back to Back!
2011 Bests
5K-22:49 10K-47:38 Half Mary-1:51:50
2012 Race Report
1/1-New Year's 5K-22:11
2/11-Sweetheart Classic 4-mile-29:49
3/24-Coulee Chase 5K-21:40
5/6-Colorado Marathon-4:08:30
5/28-Bolder Boulder 10K
I only skimmed...but if the school's policy was unclear and so the least restrictive one wasn't followed, then I can see being upset about his due process rights. So give those to him (whether that means giving him the school board hearing, looking for another homework assignment he plagiarized on, etc.) and then kick him out.
Also, the school sounds like it's being reasonable in letting him into the IB program in the next year. The parents are just dragging this on and making their kid have more problems at school. I'd imagine at the end of this mess he'd have to leave that school anyway. Idiots.
Meh, I wouldn't say the Ivy's are free from plaigarism. Or even free from the stupidity that is attached to getting caught plaigarizing.
A woman I used to work with from an ivy league school got a full-time position we were both up for at a nonprofit org, and then got caught plaigarizing an entire report she wrote for the organization.
The kicker? The org we both worked for got rid of her (not without a few senior - also Ivy league - staff members defending her on the grounds that, "well, she really DID need more supervision, guys!1!11!"), but then she was immediately hired by another, even more prestigious organization.
Plaigarism + ivy league education ftw?
*This post brought to you by a bitter old harpy who DIDN'T go to an Ivy league school.
"You don't get to be all puke-face about your kid shooting your undead baby daddy when all you had to do was KEEP HIM IN THE FLUCKING HOUSE, LORI!" - doctorwho
Yes,I'm smiling...I'm a marathoner!
Bloggy McBloggerson
CO Nestie Award Winner-Prettiest Brain-Back to Back!
2011 Bests
5K-22:49 10K-47:38 Half Mary-1:51:50
2012 Race Report
1/1-New Year's 5K-22:11
2/11-Sweetheart Classic 4-mile-29:49
3/24-Coulee Chase 5K-21:40
5/6-Colorado Marathon-4:08:30
5/28-Bolder Boulder 10K
I don't think that this was caused by the school.
What kind of due process is there for these kids? I know there is for special ed. kids and students who might have a disability.
Is this kid being denied a FAPE? Is he so advanced that regular college prep English is not appropriate?
I was wondering why the eff someone is in honor's english if he/she can't write a simple freaking journal.
If the policy was clear, the punishment should stick. But if it was misleading like the dad claims, then they need to revisit the punishment.
I give a big hell yeah to the superintendent's point about devaluing the special diploma if a cheater is allowed to receive it.
This is ridiculous. He can get back into the program his junior year. If he was so concerned about not getting into an Ivy then he shouldn't have cheated knowing the consequences. His parents are doing him a huge disservice.
In an ideal world, yes. But that's not how things happens. People/companies only read contracts carefully when they have a problem with them. And they will almost always find a problem/something to complain about.
I think the parents and kids are an idiot, and the end result should be the same. But if this brought to light an inconsistency or problem with the school's forms, then they should learn from that, change it, and move on (without this kid in the program).
Berghouse's son, who is not being named because he is a minor, had signed an "Academic Honesty Pledge" at the beginning of the school year that declares cheating is grounds for immediate removal from the advanced-level program; his mother also had signed it.
However, Berghouse said, the school has conflicting policies; there is one stating that a student will be removed from class only after a second plagiarism offense.
I am not sure why they are claiming conflicting policies. The overall school apparently has a policy. The AP class then takes a separate academic pledge which discloses rules that could result in removal from the advanced-level program. Why is the AP class not allowed to do something different especially since the special rules were laid out from the beginning? AP classes have different standards in every other aspect, I don't have a problem with this one. AP class is not mandatory, it is voluntary to the extent you meet certain requirements and this was one of them. He can suck it up in a college-prep english class for the rest of the year. Besides if writing in a journal is so hard for him, that may be where he belongs anyway.
Anything you can achieve through hard work, you could also just buy.
I don't know whether to agree with you or take you under my wing and show you the crap that gets honors here.
It's warm and cuddly up in there, right?
My brother was professor at an Ivy League school. He left when he got tired of turning students in for obvious cheating and nothing happening to the kids.
This is where I am.
No wonder this kid cheats if his parents have clearly taught him the lesson that cheating is OK.
Also, I seriously doubt this is the first time he's cheated. It's just the first time he's gotten caught.
Considering my stalled weight loss? yes.
it's great to know this kid's first lesson is consequences is "daddy will fix it."
awesome.
I agree. That's why I wish the school would investigate and carefully check anything he's ever done. How will daddy feel when they find multiple instances of cheating? When the school has more evidence, will the kid ever get into the IB program? I'd hope not.
And if he'd just done more work in the first place, this wouldn't be an issue.
Ugh this makes me so angry.
What an entitled little creep.
The kid clearly can't handle the work, so he shouldn't be in the program. That alone should be enough explanation from the school.
I love that the parent are concerned that this will impact the rest of his life so irreparably. Granted, kids do stupid, impulsive things. But we're not talking about the consequence being jail time. We're talking about getting into an Ivy League school versus going to community college and transferring to Berkeley or UCLA. Big effing deal.
This is provided he hasn't cheated his way through the entire school year and isn't in fact a perfectly average kid whose pushy parents shoved him into the IB program because, hey, they're upper middle class, so their kid being anything less is unacceptable.
I guess this is a good life lesson for the kid, though. Affluent people with a sense of entitlement who are willing to sue pretty much DO get whatever they want.
Oh, that is fantastic. This...this is wine. Yeah. Look what all these idiots are drinking. Look at these dicks! Obviously it's not really delicious, like hot chocolate or Coke, but for wine...brilliant.
Better he learns it now than loses tenure for it.
This. What work, pray tell, should I trust Junior to do now that he's proven himself untrustworthy? And, oh how unpleasant for me to have to stay after school even longer to create work for Junior, who clearly hates my guts, to do when I'm not all that fond of him myself right now either.
This. What work, pray tell, should I trust Junior to do now that he's proven himself untrustworthy? And, oh how unpleasant for me to have to stay after school even longer to create work for Junior, who clearly hates my guts, to do when I'm not all that fond of him myself right now either.
I also think the father was thinking that being a teacher's
assistant will look good for college.
*father does equal tool*