Plans for creating a new, school-wide, academic honesty and integrity policy are progressing as the year continues on. Concrete plans have not been implemented yet, but the goal of the faculty council and administration is to have the policy in effect by the beginning of next year.
“Up to this point in time, there has been no policy for the whole school,” Principal Gary Clark said. “It has been more or less, ‘cheating is wrong,’ and each teacher had their own policy.”
The faculty council is the main group spearheading the progress of this new policy, and teacher Matt Slocomb has been in charge of leading this subcommittee with the discussion of what the policy will consist of. The committee has taken into account what the consequences are for different types of offenses and the common occurrence of them.
“What teachers talked about originally was about keeping track,” Clark said. “In other words, what if there becomes a pattern? If a student does it more than once, then should that mean there will be consequences for a second offense or third offense as compared to the first one?”
According to chemistry teacher, Brad Amundson, the school-wide policy will be beneficial to the school if carried out in a strict and consistent way.
“Having a school-wide policy would provide students with a consistent definition and consequence to show the importance of academic honesty,” Amundson said. “However, for this policy to be effective, it would actually have to be followed and supported by all teachers and administration. There would be no room for ‘special’ circumstances.”
Clark stated that hopefully the policy will be finalized with enough time to include it in the 2013-14 Packer Planner.
“If you have an official policy in the planner, it is just the school presenting a consistent message to the students, the community, and the staff,” Slocomb said. “That [helps] people understand a little bit more clearly what the expectations are.”