Mrs. Pelton s Biology Class Cheating Essay - 819 Words

In my reaction to the article about Mrs. Pelton’s biology class cheating, I believe that the school district was in the wrong by making Mrs. Pelton change her grading. The town of Piper, Kansas is only about 20 minutes away from Kansas City; I am from Olathe, Kansas which is about 30 minutes away from Kansas City. Both of these cities are suburbs of Kansas City but with two different ways they handle parents complaining about teachers. These so called parents in this article demanded the school board is to change the way teachers grade their classes. Mrs. Pelton was a teacher at Piper High School in Piper, KS. She taught a biology class which had a long term assessment that included collecting samples from trees in the local area and writing a report on what they have found. Pelton was very adamant about students not plagiarizing. She made both parents and students sign a contract which outlined in rule number seven ‘Cheating and plagiarism will result in the failure of the assignment. It is expected that all work turned in is completely their own.’ Mrs. Pelton even went on record saying what her version of plagiarism is ‘It is copying things word for word and using it as your own material.’ When the end of the school year came around students started to hand in their assessments. Mrs. Pelton notices that the students have handed assessment that were not fully their own work. She wanted to back up her accusations by turning to website called â€Å"Turnitin.com a new Web