What have we learned this school year kids?
First of all, we learned back in February that plagairism is no big deal.
Now we learn what to do if you’re in danger of not graduating with your classmates. You hire some weasle and threaten to sue the school. And like cowardly school districts everywhere…you can count on this one to cave.
Fuck academic integrity, and fuck the teacher while yer at it.
Nice one Mr. Massad. Sleep well at night ya bottom feeder? :rolleyes:
…well good one braniac. I screwed up the link to the graduation story. The correct link is here
:mad:
It’s gone way too far. WTF happened to common sense and personal responsibility?
Yeah, I know… Gone the way of the Dodo.
:mad:
Yeah, but when word gets out-if she wants to go to college, no one will accept her.
I hope.
The school/school board at least could have dragged this out until after graduation and dropped it later if they had to. This way there are no consequences to the student and the parents feel their decision to hire a lawyer is justified.
It’s like the student is getting all this support from her parents after being a screw-up. Didn’t attend a make-up session that could have helped her? This is the crap life lesson this girl is learning?!
Until they sue for acceptance. 
I’m simply struck by the fact that there is very little given in the story about what the girl’s side of the issue is. The lawyer’s letter (as quoted in the story) appears extortionate on the face of it; I wonder if there isn’t more information (not appearing here) that argues against such an interpretation.
According to the enabler/mom…
I’m guessing that the particular grading policy for Ms. Joice’s class was explained in detail to the students in her class. It don’t matter jack shit if other teachers have different testing policies…the mom’s viewpoint is a crock of shit. And, as was pointed out earlier, the “student” decided to skip a scheduled makeup session. In the district where I work…we call these adults helicopter parents because they swoop in to rescue their offspring from the harsh realities of life. Their numbers are increasing.
…two for two in the faulty link department today.
I’m wondering just what her overall academic status was given that the difference between graduating and not graduating appeared to hinge on one English test. It can’t have been too spectacular if that one test made that much difference.
And why are senior high school English students being given 50-question multiple choice tests? Is a high school diploma really that worthless these days?
Y’know what pisses me off? That I’m not in school anymore. I mean, I knew how to work the system when I was in high school, but the system still occasionally fought back. If there’d been this many slackasses and incompetants running the show back at Redwood Highschool, I’d’ve been the fucking valedictorian.
Yep. (rant that is indicative of some of the problems in some of the school districts) Schools want funding, so they teach their kids to learn only what is on the state sponsored tests, they lower school standards to inflate the amount of passing students to get more money. They pass children who are too old, or are problem children to get them out of the way. It’s not like they have the money anyway to take care of a lot of the problems. Stupid parents are too busy blaming the schools because Johnny can’t read and blows up frogs while the parents sit on their fat butts and eat bon-bons. And lets not forget the Dept. of Education that has finacial records so hideous professional firms couldn’t find all the money. If only i was in charge…::evil grin::
LEt’s see, sues to gain entrance to college, sues to get good grades…sues to graduate college and get degree…
What, is she going to sue her boss down at Burger King?
Every parent and every child should alienate this family. If I was their coworker, they could be assured I wouldn’t say “Hello” without a signed release promising no legal action. I skimmed through the teacher’s letter and I agree with her. As much as I want to fault the school, litigation is expensive and these types of shysters will run up the bill and use every intimidation tactic in the book. It’s sad the school caved; even then, I would have given a makeup exam so much tougher than the final as to be unpassable. Fuck the parents with a pitchfork. Maybe if they started caring about her grades back in September it wouldn’t be a problem.
Nah, K-Mart.
::flees::
I’m not agreeing with the notion of grabbing a lawyer to deal with issues like this, but I have to agree with the mom inasmuch as there should be a uniform policy regarding retests throughout the school.
When I was teaching, not only was there no uniform policy regarding testing, retesting or extra-credit and make up work, there wasn’t a uniform grade policy. A 90 in geography or algebra taught by Mr. McCoy was an A, but you had to pull a 92 in algebra taught by Mrs. See and a 93 in Mr. Frank’s biology for the same grade. Students doing equally well in certain subjects were getting different grades (and different GPAs and class rankings) depending on how their schedules worked out. It took a lawsuit from the #2 ranked freshman’s parents to get a schoolwide grade scale put into place.
Maybe – hopefully – this lawsuit threat will force this school to create a rule regarding retesting.
**
Great idea. Let’s eliminate ALL teacher based decision making while we’re at it…what next =>?
uniform homework policy? Hey Mr Brown hardly has ANY homework in World Cultures…it aint fair that I have calculus homework!!
uniform testing format? Hey Mrs Smith never has essay questions on her Home Economics tests, why do I have to have them on my World Politics final?
A standardized grading scale is pretty standard fare at ANY school I’ve ever gone to or worked at (although some AP/advanced classes are often weighted diffeerently in terms of GPA) …it is certainly NOT the same thing as a mandated uniform testing policy…to suggest so is ridiculous.
Are you going to force all teachers to have the same weights on their tests and assignments also? Hey Mrs Jones only weights the last test at 10% of the entire grade…it’s not fair that my science final is 25% of the grade.
**
Because what, this rule about retesting was just sprung at the last minute on this poor determined girl?
Because she had no other avenues to improve her grade (like not skipping the makeup session)?
Machiavelli would love your thinking.
I don’t see a problem with that. (Perhaps because that is how it was in my school). So long as the policy for the class is explained for the student.
What if Mr. McCoy gave harder tests than Mrs. See or Mr. Frank? What if Mr. Smith gave horrible, evil, soul destroying tests that few students got above a 70 in, so he made 80 an A, while Mr. Jones gave 20 question multiple choice tests and therefore required a 95 for an A?
It makes no sense whatsoever for a 90 to be the same grade across the board when it may clearly be more or less work depending upon the subject and teacher. (Unless the teachers in your school didn’t design anything and all taught the exact same material out of the exact same books in the exact same way and then handed out the exact same test graded in the exact same way and could have been replaced by robots and tape recorders.)
Forcing a “90” yo be an A (or whatever) is silly. I mean, the teacher is the one who decides what is neccessary to achieve a “90,” so why not allow the teacher to decide what a “90” is worth? The teacher already has complete control over grading in their classroom, so adding restrictions like that is useless bussywork.
If Mr. Alan used to make 95% an A, but now must make a 90% an A, then Mr. Alan will simply make a 90% more difficult to achieve, and nothing has changed except making Mr. Alan’s life more difficult.
Complete and utter horseshit.
I think the school should have fought the suit, then counter-sued for malicious prosecution.
It is clear that she didn’t fail because she muffed ONE test. Nobody fails because they muff one test. They fail because they muffed other tests and did not do the work that was assigned. She was trying to skate the entire year, turned in a plagerized assignment, and when offered the opportunity to make up ground, skipped out.