Chamblee’s Academic Honor Code is a new addition to Chamblee’s student handbook which all students must adhere to.
Dr. Jessica Hunt teaches multi-variable stats and is chair of Chamblee’s Academic Council. Played a key role in the development of Chamblee’s new honor code, which lays out the foundation of what it means to be academically dishonest.
“For a number of years I’ve conducted surveys and those surveys indicated that at least 72 percent of the students surveyed admitted to cheating on tests,” said Hunt.”More than 80 percent had observed other students either cheating on tests or homework.”
As stated in the Academic Honor Code, the surveys of Hunt cities were conducted from 2004-2008. This new academic honor code not only lays out the consequences of cheating but also delves into a wide range of forms that are considered cheating. The honor code states that “every student is honor bound not to lie, cheat or steal.”
“The cheating indicates the seriousness of undermining the meaning of a grade,” said Hunt. “The students really are not realizing that this is a violation of trust that is extended to not only their classmates, but their teachers, parents, and school.”
The document then goes on to define these three terms along with plagiarism. The ramifications for students caught cheating on assignments include the student receiving a zero on the assignment, writing a minimum 500-word essay explaining the reason for cheating, a student-parent-teacher conference, and that student will not be eligible for any academic awards and may be dismissed from any honor organization.
“The consequences are justified,” said the President of the National Honor Society, Alex Seoh. “If you’re caught cheating then almost all your work is invalidated. It may look draconian, but that is only because the school has been lax up until this point.”
Also outlined in the CCHS Academic Honor Code are actions considered academically dishonest. Included in this outline is an action that many students engage in frequently, but do not consider cheating. However, the CCHS Academic Honor Code clearly states that giving specific questions or answers to a student who has not taken a quiz, test, examination, or completed an assignment is considered as being academically dishonest.
“If I could suspend someone from high school for doing it, then I would.” said British Literature teacher, Amy Branca/ “I don’t think we are preparing students for college because if they were caught being academically dishonest, then they would be kicked out of college.”
The mornings are the liveliest time for students to engage in academic dishonesty, as they crowd the hallways copying down a few answers to the problems they did not complete the night before. Some teachers have taken it upon themselves to eliminate any impulse to cheat by giving assignments that eliminate this cheating craze.
With this new honor code that Chamblee students must abide by, more disciplinary issues will be brought to the attention of disciplinary principal, Marcus Searcy.
“The Academic Council, other teachers, and parents came together to form this code because they felt that it was necessary in order to adequately prepare students for life and college,” said Searcy. “This code will be enforced, and we hope that it will get kids to reinforce that we mean business, and I support any code that elevates Chamblee Charter High School.”