When a student of any age is accused of cheating in a group setting, the consequences for that individual's academic experience and future opportunities can be truly significant. As a parent, you don't want to let one false allegation or one misstep affect your child for years to come. As a result, it's important to seek legal assistance from the experienced Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team as soon as you possibly can. Whether your child is a young teen or a young adult pursuing a college degree, being proactive in this way can help to ensure that their rights are protected as the disciplinary process unfolds.
If Your Student Is Enrolled in a K-12 Program
If your child is accused of cheating on group work before their college years, they could face a myriad of different consequences if their school or district administration decides to take action. This is because states rarely regulate any kind of approach to misconduct at the state level. Instead, the task of determining when a student should be disciplined – and how a student should be disciplined – is left primarily up to individual districts and schools.
With that said, there are often some broad state standards that come into play when a student is accused of academic misconduct. For example, the State of New Jersey's Department of Education delegates authority to each district to construct a student code of conduct that outlines both expectations and potential consequences for violations of those expectations. However, the Department of Education directly regulates suspension and expulsion issues to a certain degree, given how consequential these forms of punishment can be.
Due both to the complex web of federal, state, district, and school-specific regulations that may play into a student's academic misconduct situation, it's important to seek legal representation from an Education Law Team that understands how to unravel all of these interwoven interests to a student's benefit. Otherwise, the risk that one student will be treated far more harshly than another facing similar circumstances – by virtue of their location, the discretion of a particular administrator, subconscious bias, etc. – will remain all too pressing.
If Your Student Is Seeking a College Degree
Your student's situation is a little different if they're seeking a college degree than it is if they're younger. College students are generally required to abide by the terms of their academic institution's honor code. In the event that this honor code is allegedly breached for academic misconduct purposes, students will generally be required to attend a hearing where they can defend against the charges in question.
Some colleges allow students to be represented by counsel during academic misconduct hearings, while others don't. If the Lento Law Firm's Education Law Team is not permitted to advocate on behalf of your student's interests directly, we can help them to prepare for their hearing effectively. As navigating this kind of hearing successfully may mean the difference between being able to earn a college degree and being sent home unceremoniously – and forever – it's vitally important that your student is prepared to defend against the charges they're facing.
Are You Overreacting?
If you're thinking that you may be overreacting by searching for legal assistance concerning your child's academic misconduct allegations, consider some of the consequences that they may face if their case is concluded unfavorably:
- Numerous detentions.
- Informal or formal academic probation.
- Suspension from school.
- Expulsion from school.
- Poor grades in the affected class could result in a drop in your child's GPA and consequences related to that drop.
- A note in their official record related to the cheating incident could keep them from being accepted to the college or graduate program of their choice.
- A loss of financial aid.
- A loss of study abroad privileges.
- Expulsion from academic societies.
- Expulsion from a school sports team or another beloved extracurricular pursuit.
- Dismissal from a work-study position.
Additionally, a student affected by an alleged cheating scandal may face social consequences, including judgment, rejection, and even isolation. Clearing your child's name can affect not just their academic reality and future opportunities but also their social, mental, and physical well-being. In short, you aren't overreacting by seeking help with your child's alleged misconduct charges. In fact, if you weren't thinking about seeking help, you might be dramatically underreacting to the situation at hand.
Next Steps
To give your student the best possible chance at avoiding consequences for alleged cheating in a group session, you'll want to reach out to the client-focused Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team as soon as you can. Additionally, you'll want to advise your student to stay off of social media for now. Even seemingly harmless posts made in the wake of a cheating scandal could be used against them. Finally, you'll want to tell them to be careful when communicating with anyone about the situation before we've had a chance to evaluate it. Texting or talking with their friends could end up harming their case if their friends misinterpret what they say and pass along that information to their parents and/or school authorities, for example.
Personalized Legal Assistance With Academic Misconduct Charges Is Available
Watching your child struggle as a result of allegations that they've cheated while participating in group work can be distressing for a host of reasons. Yet, whether these allegations are well founded or not, the Lento Law Firm's knowledgeable and dedicated Education Law Team can help you to successfully protect your child's rights and to better safeguard their future opportunities.
The client-focused team at the Lento Law Firm has extensive experience advocating on behalf of students' rights in academic settings across the U.S. We believe that every child who is struggling due to misconduct-related charges deserves representation from a compassionate team that will do its utmost to safeguard their interests. To learn more, you can call our offices directly at 888.535.3686 or reach out to our team online today. We look forward to assisting your family.
