The Teacher Said I Was Cheating!
Dylan called me from school in tears.
“Something happened in Spanish,” he choked. “They thought I was cheating and now I got a zero on my unit test!”
My stomach clenched. I wanted to vomit.
Denial hit instantly. No! My child wouldn’t cheat!
My mothering instinct kicked in immediately after: What if he did cheat? What if he’s just upset because he got caught?
The two sides of my brain fought while Dylan gave me details.
“I had this piece of paper on my desk and I didn’t even know what it was, and then I didn’t know what this one word was so I got out my computer to look it up and the teacher said I was cheating!”
Paper? Computer? Dylan has an IEP allowing him to use a personal computer for his writing issues.
“She thought you were cheating because you were looking up something on your computer?”
“Yeah!”
How stupid does she think he is? If he were going to cheat, he’d at least TRY to be slick about it! He’s not going to pull out a laptop in the middle of the test!
“Okay,” I said. “The worst thing that can happen is that she thinks you are cheating and you get a zero on your unit test. That has already happened. It can’t get any worse than that. So what are we going to do next?”
“I’m going to go to the guidance counselor’s office. I had to beg her to let me leave the room,” Dylan said
“Okay,” I said. “When you get to the counselor’s office, have him call me right away. And we will see if we can get you to retake the unit test after school, okay?”
“Okay,” he sniffed. And so the guidance counselor called me, and I emailed the teacher, and I talked to the teacher. And I met Dylan at school, and drove him home to hear the whole story.
Long story short, he didn’t cheat. He totally flaked out, didn’t hear the teacher say anything about a test, and thought he was just working on a paper. Which is why he pulled his laptop out of his backpack, plopped it on the desk for all the world to see – on top of his binder, which is enormous – and didn’t even try to hide the fact that he was looking up a word.
The teacher told me the worst of it.
“You’re taking a unit test!” the teacher told him.
“But I didn’t know I was taking a test!” Dylan exclaimed. The kids around him laughed at him.
He honestly didn’t know. We still don’t know if she’ll allow him to retake the unit test. But at the very least, I know – and my son knows – that he’s doing the best he can, and being honest.
And that’s really what matters the most.