ipl-logo

Plagiarism In Piper Meas

929 Words4 Pages

In Piper, Kansas a high school teacher, Christine Pelton, failed one-fifth of her biology students on their end of semester project because she found out that they had used the internet to cheat. After the parents of the failed students complained, the Piper School District ordered her to lessen the punishment; Christine Pelton then made the decision to resign in protest. The issue over plagiarism is not just happening in the small town of Piper, Kansas, but it is actually happening all over the nation. Pelton’s actions regarding the issue were justified because the students did actually plagiarize their work which makes them play a part in the bigger issue, the national decline in integrity. Some people claim that Pelton’s punishment was …show more content…

When these students plagiarize others work they render themselves unable to truly understand the material. The purpose of going to school is to prepare students for life and give them the necessary knowledge they need to succeed. If you simply copy someone 's work, it eliminates the whole learning aspect because none of the work is your own doing. Along with that, you lose the potential knowledge and skills that could help you later in life. The punishment serves as a reminder of those facts and helps students come to realize that cheating hinders your education. Later in life you will not be able to simply copy another person or look to the internet to answer all your problems. If you go down that route you run the risk of your employer firing you based on your inability to complete the assigned task. Pelton’s punishment was necessary because in a way it is similar to the consequences you might receive on a job later in life. Within the student handbook for the Piper School District it clearly specifies that the punishment for plagiarism will be an immediate zero on the given assignment. Since the student handbook is easily accessible by the student body, they should have known about this rule and the consequences of failing to abide by it. Most likely, they knew about this rule and chose to violate it in order to get an easy “A”. Plagiarizing others work is not a …show more content…

Parents believe their children are angels and therefore deserve credit even though they do nothing to earn it. This ideology results in children being raised to believe that they are able to cheat and get away with it. These children continue to be babied by their parents, which allows them to rely on them to deal with the challenges they face. Thus when they are challenged they either give up or take the easy way out, such as lying and cheating. Pelton resigned solely because her students complained to their parents, who then decided to defend their students who were already in the wrong. This allows for children to grow up believing that they can cheat and get away with it. These children then spread this ideology to their friends who are also beginning to think it is okay to cheat. All these children are therefore growing up believing that it is okay to cheat; they then teach their own children that cheating is an acceptable behavior. This results in a national decline in integrity because the upcoming generations are being raised with the ideology that it is appropriate for them to

Open Document