Academic Dishonesty/Plagiarism

TOPS

Purpose: Academic dishonesty/plagiarism is when a student is not doing their work but claiming it is theirs. Students can cheat using other student's work, a search engine on the internet, or a third-party artificial intelligence resource. This is the process to follow when a teacher encounters a student who submitted assignments that are not their own.

  1. Once a student is suspected of plagiarizing, using a third-party application, or someone else’s work to complete any portion of their coursework, the teacher initially checks the Academic Honesty spreadsheet in the TOPS Google Drive Teacher Toolbox folder to determine if the student has done this before. The following steps will be taken depending on how many times it has happened before in their 9-12 career at TOPS. For this event, complete the Academic Dishonesty spreadsheet.

  2. After the first offense of plagiarism or academic dishonesty (including using AI or other programs), the teacher notifies the student, family, and administration. The student has the opportunity to redo the assignment for 50%. The teacher will encourage the student to communicate with the instructor if there are any questions or concerns about plagiarism moving forward.

  3. The second offense signifies that the student and family must meet with the teacher and principal to address the situation. The teacher will set up a virtual meeting with the student, family, and principal. In addition, the student does not get to redo the assignment and will get a 0 on the assignment. During the meeting, the teacher and principal will discuss the ramifications of this, the steps to take for it not to happen again, and the next steps if this continues.

  4. The third offense signifies that this learning environment is unsuitable for the student and family. At the end of the year, the student will be dismissed from the school, and alternate learning environments will be discussed to see if the student can move to a different school before the end of the year occurs. 

  5. If these offenses continue, the student will receive 0s on assignments (including being counted absent), and meetings will continue with the student until the student moves schools.