Teacher Resigns After Classroom Battle

Kansas City TV 5 ^ | 1/25/02 | Staff Reporter

[KC Burke]

WYANDOTTE COUNTY, KS -- Cheating, power struggles and a teacher who says she just can't do her job.

A classroom project triggered a battle in the Piper School District in Wyandotte County over right and wrong that won't soon be forgotten.

The teacher says some 30 students plagiarized off the Internet. The teacher was going to flunk them, but parents complained to the school board and everything changed.

The teacher says the students learned a dangerous lesson, and she learned she simply couldn't teach them anymore.

It was the end of the fall semester at Piper High School, 4400 North 107th St. A final project to collect and describe leaves for 10th grade biology.

Teacher Christine Pelton noticed a disturbing trend.

"They were giving the same report, word-for-word," Pelton says.

Pelton went to the Web and matched up entire paragraphs from some papers, then told the students they'd plagiarized.

"The kids claim they didn't know how to cite and what plagiarism was, and we covered it in class," Pelton says.

She referred them to the district handbook they received at the beginning of the year and the policy inside. She referred them to the same policy on the syllabus, which the kids and their parents had signed.

Then, based on that policy, she gave 30 students, about a quarter of the class, a zero on the project.

The project was worth 50 percent of the semester grade. That's how the teacher before her had done it; that's how she did it. Flunking the project meant flunking the course, so parents complained to the teacher and then the school board.

The board, in turn, revised its own plagiarism policy and applied it to Pelton's class. Then the board revised Pelton's policy about the weight of the grade, from 50 percent to 30.

Some of Pelton's former students see the whole flap as a sign that the wrong people are running the school.

"It's not the parents' decision if they should be failed or not. They're not the ones in the classroom," says Lance Finley, a junior.

Pelton says the decision undermined her authority, and made it practically impossible to keep teaching at the school.

"When they found out, they started cheering, 'We won, we won. We don't have to listen to you any longer,' that, 'teachers need to realize that we run the school, not you,'" Pelton says.

That's why she resigned a month ago.

The school superintendent confirmed all of the facts that Pelton presented to KCTV5, but did not express an opinion on the board's decision, saying, quote, "I don't want to pick at that scab again."

The school board president declined any comment, and the rest of the board did not return KCTV5's phone calls.

[KC Burke]

Now follow me on this. To placate the cheating students parents, it appears that the board did this in a manner which robs the approximately 70 students that did not cheat of the weighted grade that the 50% credit project would have had for those that did well.

Some of those student therefore recieved a lower overall grade for the class.

Not only did the cheating students learn a dangerous lesson from their complaining/enabling parents and the compliant school board, but the honest kids were taught something as well.

[KC Burke]

You know...we sometimes complain about the teachers in the public schools. This is a good example of the actual systemic problem. And its right in your backyard, almost.

[KC Burke]

It continues.

[Doctor Doom]

Not only did the cheating students learn a dangerous lesson from their complaining/enabling parents and the compliant school board, but the honest kids were taught something as well.

Just another day at government school. Mission accomplished.

[McGavin999]

And we now have a whole class full of losers who will end up as failures in life as a direct result of their parents. Gee, they must be so proud.

[Keith in Iowa]

Makes quite a good example of why homeschooling is growing in popularity....

[RobbyS]

The same stuff was going on forty years ago. The differenve was that it was usually done in individual cases where the board made "exceptions" to policy. But, truth be know, there is nothing more political than the public school system. It suffers from a surfeit of democracy, which is to say the corrupt form of popular government.

[KC Burke]

Thanks for the comment. I think, on a larger plane, it is also a significant example of the confusion and ignorance about service in a public office, such as a school board.

The confusion about our form of government fostered by constantly refering to it as a "Democracy" rather than a Republic (whose representatives are chosen by largely democratic processes, varied for diffusion of power) leads people to perform the job of deliberative representation poorly.

They honestly think they are supposed to be a pliebisitory delegate. As such, just an extention of the Will of the People, however it presents itself, minute to minute.

[Amelia]

"When they found out, they started cheering, 'We won, we won. We don't have to listen to you any longer,' that, 'teachers need to realize that we run the school, not you,'" Pelton says.

When the inmates are in charge of the asylum.....

[KC Burke]

On a side note...having one project worth 50% of the grade is reflective of a lazy teacher, however

It appears to have been the major reasearch paper for a High School biology class and part of a curiculum that this teacher inherited from the district and prior teacher according to the article.

[RobbyS]

Had to take a hit at the teacher, didn't you. The issue was (1) the cheating of the students and (2) the condoning of the cheating. No wonder that half of teachers get out after five years. It ain't the money, It's the Rodney Daingerfield syndrome, "no respect."

[Amelia]

On a side note...having one project worth 50% of the grade is reflective of a lazy teacher, however.

I'd tend to agree that 50% is a pretty high weight to put on one project, but it sure doesn't sound like something she could grade in one evening...or even two.

Have YOU ever graded leaf collections and/or research papers?

[brat]

"And we now have a whole class full of losers who will end up as failures in life..."

There will be no need for intelligence in the New World Order. Intelligence is dangerous.

[KC Burke]

I guess I was typing my comment at #9 as you were typing yours...Great Minds think alike... ;-)

[Amelia]

No wonder that half of teachers get out after five years. It ain't the money, It's the Rodney Daingerfield syndrome, "no respect."

Thank you. I'm glad to see there's someone on FR who understands!

[Arkinsaw]

We had a couple of problems with our local school boards, primarily regarding school closings in our district. In my experience they do not care one whit about what the public thinks or says. They had the obligatory public comment session where unanimously the crowd was opposed to them. Some read newspapers, some chatted and laughed with each other with hands over their microphones while those opposed made comments. After they had performed their legal duty they unanimously voted to do what everyone attending was adamantly opposed to. They had no worry because they could expect to gain reelection through bloc voting and yellow dogs.

They of course assured the crowd that no student would experience any negative effect beyond the longer drive to school. About a week after the school year started they had to announce that two grades that previously had choir would no longer be accepted into the school choir because they had 200 more students and the same number of teachers. I would have thought they could at least have waited a semester before blatantly showing that they were liars.

So I am quite surprised that the parents of these cheating students could get the time of day from a school board much less a vote. These kids must have had some pretty connected Daddies to pull that one off.

[KC Burke]

Get your side of the metro straighened out will you?

;-)

[KC Burke]

In your example there was probably a strong District Finacial Officer and a Superintendent standing behind them telling them what Had to be done. It appears that this teacher and her peers didn't have such effective support based on the superintendent's quote.

[AlaskaErik]

Until a few weeks ago, I was starting to prepare myself for getting my teaching certificate. I had been to the university. I had info on taking the GRE and Praxis tests. I was all ready. When I was at the university, I was disturbed to see all the posters related to diversity and multi-culturalism. Nothing about preparing children to become responsible adults. I also started seeing stories like this one. It soon became apparent that I could not function in today's school system. I would either have to suck it up and be quiet or I would have to be an outcast because of my views. In the end, I decided that being a teacher was not in my future. I can't imagine being frustrated for the rest of my working life. Good luck to all you future teachers. This article shows the reality you'll be facing.