Academic dishonesty is a major problem that Georgia high schools take very seriously. As the number of students cheating on tests and assignments rises in the state, teachers and school administrators are getting tougher on academic misconduct infractions. When a student is accused of cheating, plagiarism, falsification, or another form of academic dishonesty, schools don't go easy on them.
Having an academic misconduct violation on a school record could hurt your child's future. Your student suffers reputational damage, struggles to regain the trust of their teachers, and might not be accepted into the college they want to attend.
Imagine how devastating these effects are if your student is falsely accused of academic misconduct. Having a legal advisor by your side can help you and your kid through a tricky academic misconduct situation.
What is Academic Misconduct?
Academic misconduct is any action a student takes to gain an unfair advantage in the classroom or learning environment. High schools do their best to ensure each student has the same opportunity to succeed. When one student skews the odds in their favor, it's detrimental to their own education as well as the education of others. For this reason, Georgia high schools take academic misconduct seriously.
How do you know if your child has violated your school's academic misconduct policy?
Most high schools have academic integrity, dishonesty, or misconduct policies. They might also refer to them as honor or ethics codes. Sometimes, the school district sets these rules, and each school must follow the guidelines. Other districts might ask schools to make their own policies. You and your child should carefully review the school's rules related to academic misconduct before the start of a new school year. If your child is accused of violating their school's academic misconduct, the school will usually notify you.
What are some examples of academic misconduct in Georgia high schools?
- Plagiarism: Plagiarism is one of the most common academic misconduct offenses high school students commit. It's passing someone else's work off as one's own without giving proper credit to the original author. Copying passages from books, websites, or articles without citing them, taking a friend's work and submitting it as one's own, or purchasing an essay or homework assignment online are all examples of plagiarism. Sometimes, accidental plagiarism results when students don't know how to use a citation style correctly. Many schools devote time and resources to teaching students how to credit the intellectual property of others properly when submitting their own work.
- Cheating: Cheating is using unfair or dishonest means to complete a test, project, or homework assignment. Obtaining unauthorized copies of exams, using resources the teacher has forbidden, or knowingly giving information concerning the contents of an assignment or assessment are examples of cheating.
- Illegitimate Collaboration: Students who work together on a project when they're not supposed to may be charged with academic misconduct. If a project or assignment is a group project, a teacher will explicitly say so. If students work on a group project together and each student in the group is not given credit for the work they completed, the group might also face academic dishonesty charges.
- Falsification: Submitting false information or altering documents to obtain a higher grade is a violation of most schools' honor codes. Examples of falsification are changing the appearance of computer printouts and attempting to modify information on an academic record or grade book without authorization.
- Unethical technology use: Most high schools have policies regarding smartphone, tablet, and other personal electronic device use in the classroom. These policies overlap with the school's academic integrity code when a student uses a smartphone to cheat or allows another student to complete online assignments using their name. Most schools are wary of cell phone use during school hours. A student should have a very good reason for pulling their phone out during class (either the teacher has allowed it, it's an emergency, etc.)
How Do Georgia High Schools Handle Academic Misconduct?
Academic misconduct policies vary across the state of Georgia. The Fulton County Board of Education requires that each school in its system have a rule prohibiting cheating. The rule should state what constitutes cheating and lay out possible disciplinary actions. Each school specifies its own honor code and penalties for violating it.
What are the penalties?
Penalties for academic misconduct vary by district and school. They also vary by offense—some infractions are more serious than others. The classroom teacher might handle cheating on a homework assignment, resulting in a zero grade. Teachers might refer repeated or more serious violations to school administrators.
The Fulton County Schools Student Code of Conduct considers cheating a minor act of misconduct. Penalties include re-doing an assignment, removal from extracurricular activities, or an in-school suspension of up to five days.
What to do if your child receives an academic misconduct accusation
Some schools allow students and parents to appeal an accusation of academic misconduct. This process usually involves a disciplinary hearing, during which a panel may review the incident in question and make a final decision. High school students in Georgia facing disciplinary action such as long-term suspension or expulsion have a right to know why and a right to defend themselves.
An Academic Misconduct Advisor Can Help
As a parent, you might think you can deal with the school's disciplinary proceedings yourself. Academic misconduct isn't illegal, but it can leave behind serious ramifications for your child. The Georgia Public School Disciplinary Tribunal Act allows students and parents to have legal representation at disciplinary hearings. An attorney-advisor can go over the school's code of conduct with you, attend the hearing, and prepare you to best refute the charges against your child.
Attorney Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm has represented thousands of students across the country in academic misconduct cases, with a record of success. With your child's future at stake, you don't want to leave anything to chance. Call the firm at 888-535-3686 to schedule a consultation today.
Georgia high schools where Joseph D. Lento can help as your child's student's academic misconduct advisor during investigations, hearings and appeals include, but are not limited to, the following school districts:
A
- Appling County Public Schools
- Atkinson County Public Schools
- Atlanta Public Schools
B
- Bacon County Public Schools
- Baker County Public Schools
- Baldwin County Public Schools
- Banks County Public Schools
- Barrow County School System
- Bartow County School System
- Ben Hill County Public Schools
- Berrien County Public Schools
- Bibb County School District
- Bleckley County Public Schools
- Brantley County Public Schools
- Bremen City Public Schools
- Brooks County Public Schools
- Bryan County Public Schools
- Buford City Public Schools
- Bulloch County Schools
- Burke County Public Schools
- Butts County Public Schools
C
- Calhoun City Public Schools
- Calhoun County Public Schools
- Camden County Schools
- Candler County Public Schools
- Carroll County Schools
- Carrollton City Public Schools
- Cartersville City Public Schools
- Catoosa County Public Schools
- Ccat School District
- Charlton County Public Schools
- Chattahoochee County Public Schools
- Chattooga County Public Schools
- Cherokee County School District
- Chickamauga City Public Schools
- Clarke County School District
- Clay County Public Schools
- Clayton County Public Schools
- Clinch County Public Schools
- Cobb County School District
- Coffee County Public Schools
- Colquitt County Schools
- Columbia County School System
- Commerce City Public Schools
- Cook County Public Schools
- Coweta County School System
- Crawford County Public Schools
- Crisp County Public Schools
D
- Dade County Public Schools
- Dalton City Public Schools
- Dawson County Public Schools
- Decatur City Public Schools
- Decatur County Public Schools
- DeKalb County School District
- Dodge County Public Schools
- Dooly County Public Schools
- Dougherty County School System
- Douglas County School System
- Dublin City Public Schools
E
- Early County Public Schools
- Echols County Public Schools
- Effingham County Schools
- Elbert County Public Schools
- Emanuel County Public Schools
- Evans County Public Schools
F
- Fannin County Public Schools
- Fayette County Board of Education
- Floyd County Schools
- Forsyth County Schools
- Franklin County Public Schools
- Fulton County Schools
G
- Gainesville City Public Schools
- Georgia Cyber Academy
- Gilmer County Public Schools
- Glascock County Public Schools
- Glynn County School System
- Gordon County Public Schools
- Grady County Public Schools
- Greene County Public Schools
- Griffin Resa School District
- Griffin-Spalding County School System
- Gwinnett County Public Schools
H
- Habersham County Public Schools
- Hall County Schools
- Hancock County Public Schools
- Haralson County Public Schools
- Harris County Public Schools
- Hart County Public Schools
- Heard County Public Schools
- Henry County Schools
- Houston County Board of Education
I
- Irwin County Public Schools
J
- Jackson County Public Schools
- Jasper County Public Schools
- Jeff Davis County Public Schools
- Jefferson City Public Schools
- Jefferson County Public Schools
- Jenkins County Public Schools
- Johnson County Public Schools
- Jones County Public Schools
L
- Lamar County Public Schools
- Lanier County Public Schools
- Laurens County Public Schools
- Lee County Public Schools
- Liberty County School System
- Lincoln County Public Schools
- Long County Public Schools
- Lowndes County Schools
- Lumpkin County Public Schools
M
- Macon County Public Schools
- Madison County Public Schools
- Marietta City Public Schools
- Marion County Public Schools
- McDuffie County Public Schools
- McIntosh County Public Schools
- Meriwether County Public Schools
- Miller County Public Schools
- Mitchell County Public Schools
- Monroe County Public Schools
- Montgomery County Public Schools
- Morgan County Public Schools
- Murray County Public Schools
- Muscogee County School District
N
- Newton County Schools
O
- Oconee County Public Schools
- Odyssey Charter School
- Oglethorpe County Public Schools
P
- Paulding County School District
- Peach County Public Schools
- Pelham City Public Schools
- Pickens County Public Schools
- Pierce County Public Schools
- Pike County Public Schools
- Polk County Public Schools
- Pulaski County Public Schools
- Putnam County Public Schools
Q
- Quitman County Public Schools
R
- Rabun County Public Schools
- Randolph County Public Schools
- Richmond County Public Schools
- Rockdale County Public Schools
- Rome City Public Schools
S
- Savannah-Chatham County Public School System
- Schley County Public Schools
- Screven County Public Schools
- Seminole County Public Schools
- Social Circle City Public Schools
- Stephens County Public Schools
- Stewart County Public Schools
- Sumter County Public Schools
T
- Talbot County Public Schools
- Taliaferro County Public Schools
- Tattnall County Public Schools
- Taylor County Public Schools
- Telfair County Public Schools
- Terrell County Public Schools
- Thomas County Public Schools
- Thomaston-Upson County Public Schools
- Thomasville City Public Schools
- Tift County Public Schools
- Toombs County Public Schools
- Towns County Public Schools
- Treutlen County Public Schools
- Trion City Public Schools
- Troup County School System
- Turner County Public Schools
- Twiggs County Public Schools
U
- Union County Public Schools
V
- Valdosta City Public Schools
- Vidalia City Public Schools
W
- Walker County Schools
- Walton County School District
- Ware County Public Schools
- Warren County Public Schools
- Washington County Public Schools
- Wayne County Public Schools
- Webster County Public Schools
- Wheeler County Public Schools
- White County Public Schools
- Whitfield County Schools
- Wilcox County Public Schools
- Wilkes County Public Schools
- Wilkinson County Public Schools
- Worth County Public Schools
It is critical to make certain academic misconduct charges at your child's Georgia high school are handled properly and that the accused student's interests and rights are protected from as early as possible during the investigative and disciplinary process. One reason, among many, is because even at high schools where a finding of responsibility for academic misconduct is made at a hearing, the investigation will set the stage for what the hearing panel is provided prior to a hearing (and what the hearing panel will in large part rely on at a hearing), and at high schools where the finding of responsibility is made solely through the investigative process, what takes place during the investigation itself will determine whether the accused student is found responsible or not responsible for academic misconduct.
Unfortunately, some parents make the mistake of not taking the necessary precautions as soon as possible when their child is accused of academic misconduct. Some people will mistakenly believe that if they "just explain what happened," their school will be fair and impartial and will arrive at the truth. In a perfect world this may be the case, but in a perfect world, being called to answer for alleged academic misconduct would not exist.
Fighting passionately for the future of his clients at schools throughout the nation for many years, Joseph D. Lento knows how important it is to mount the strongest defense because he understands that an accused high school student's academic future is on the line. He does not settle for the easiest outcome, and instead prioritizes his clients' needs and well-being. Joseph Lento is a licensed attorney in New Jersey and New York, is admitted as an attorney pro hac vice in state and federal court if needed when representing clients nationwide, and serves as an academic misconduct advisor to high school students facing investigations and disciplinary cases in Georgia and throughout the nation. Make certain your or your student's interests are protected - Contact National High School Academic Misconduct Defense Attorney Joseph D. Lento today at 888-535-3686.
