DGN is taking more extreme protocols towards cheating starting the 2025-26 school year. According to the DGN student handbook, every time a student is caught cheating, the repercussions will continuously increase.
There are a total of four offenses, with escalating consequences depending on the severity of the conflict. Opening steps will include the teacher meeting with the student to discuss the misdemeanor, as well as contacting the dean and department chair, and an assessment cap percentage of whatever the department offers, In the case of repetition and a more serious case, the student can get a written referral, a meeting with the dean, and an automatic 70% after reassessing. If a student reaches this stage, after the initial steps of intervention, NHS privileges are taken away, possibly receiving a Z4, or zero credit on the assignment after re-assessment. All of these consequences may come as a shock to some DGN students due to past years where repercussions were less
“In the past, I never really saw serious repercussions due to the policy being so lighthearted, and the students always got the chance to fix it,” math teacher Emily Beer said.
Students at DGN may think the best route to go would be to give the student a second chance. However, second chances would turn into third, fourth, and fifth chances.
The administration decided to put this strict policy in place due to too many circumstances of cheating happening too often. Because these happened so much, teachers began to notice certain red flags of possible cheating.
“On the block periods, there is a different feel from the students who are the first ones to take it, rather than the students who would take it on the second day because they have more time to ask other students about it,” math teacher Emily Beer said.
“When a student asks to go to the bathroom,” Beer said.
Even though sometimes students at DGN may think they are sneaky and able to get away with cheating, most times, even if they are not called out, they are seen in some way. However, some of the most common and creative ways to cheat according to students is writing answers on their hand, the label of their waterbottle, or on their legs
Another issue in the cheating world is the use of AI. Mainly in English classes where essays are a requirement. It is especially easy for students to cheat on their essays due to the huge shift towards the world of technology; most essays are now written on computers at DGN.
“I feel the questions in my past classes’ graded discussions have turned into AI- generated questions that make absolutely no sense,” English teacher Farrah Velazquez said.
DGN students may pose the argument of how different rules or expectations from different teachers could cause personalized issues and confusion among students.
“I had a student who he and a bunch of his pals in the class really did not believe their Global Connections teacher was reading their essays,” Velazquez said. “ They said because it was as if the kids he thinks are good students automatically get A’s, and the kids that he thinks are bad students always seem to get bad grades”
Based on this suspicion, the students decided to test if their theory was true.
“A good, usually A student started writing his essay doing everything he was supposed to do, and about halfway through he threw in a non-sentence paragraph that didn’t make any sense,” Velazquez said. “The student got an A on the essay.”
While there may be instances where grading appears inconsistent or unfair, such cases are rare and not a significant concern for most current students.
The goal of the cheating policy is to hopefully eliminate this all together. Teachers will not have to be as anxious about walking around in the room during assessments, and students will start to build better reputations around the school. Eliminating the ways to cheat, such as putting the phones in cubbies, and the grim warning of what is to come if someone chose to cheat, will make the school an all-around better place.
