Honor codes bring academic honesty for a new generation

VIRGINIA BEACH

You'll find at least two things on the wall in every room at Bishop Sullivan Catholic High School: a crucifix and a copy of the school's new honor pledge.

Starting last fall, every Sullivan student has had to sign the pledge, which states: "On my honor, I will not lie, cheat, or steal, nor give or receive unauthorized assistance on any work. I will expect the same of my peers."

In an era of Ponzi schemes and Wall Street double-dealing, Sullivan's honor code and new honor council uphold honesty as an enduring, if sometimes countercultural, value.

"Part of the mission of Bishop Sullivan is to be a light, to stand up in the face of a contemporary society that tells kids it's OK to do whatever needs to be done in order to get ahead," said Sara Hornick, an English teacher and adviser to the student court.

Like Sullivan, Norfolk Christian School, an independent evangelical school, added an honor council to its high school this academic year.

"Cheating, stealing, lying - a Christian community should demonstrate that those things are not Christ-like, not how God calls us to live in community," Principal Joel T. Uecker said.

School honor codes aren't always religiously based. In Virginia Beach, for example, secular Cape Henry Collegiate School has a code that obliges students not to cheat, steal or commit dishonest acts.

But a school unified around shared religious values may be more likely to embrace a communal code of ethics, said Dan Wueste of The Center For Academic Integrity at Clemson University in South Carolina.

"It's easier to have such a code work where there's a real sense of community," he said.

Size also matters: Norfolk Christian high has 224 students, Sullivan 427. In small schools like these, students are more likely to share a sense of camaraderie.

Solidarity is more elusive at big schools, where many students remain strangers to one another. As a result, "The larger the school, the more difficult it is to have an honor code work well," Wueste said.

The notion that school administrators and students share values challenges the us-versus-them attitude that can come with traditional disciplinary systems, Uecker said.

In teen culture, when a student is caught cheating, "it can be sort of cool - some status comes with going before the administration," he said.

In contrast, offenders seem less like young rebels when facing a court of student peers. "It's us versus us," Uecker said. "They're in a quandry, and that's how peer-to-peer accountability works."

At Sullivan, the idea that values are owned by, not imposed upon, students saw more than 100 teens involved in the drafting of the honor code and council last year. Faculty also were involved. The council has 11 members, all elected by majority vote, with each grade choosing peers.

Like an episode of TV's "Law and Order," Sullivan's honor process starts not with the council but with allegations and suspects. Students sometimes report classmates' wrongdoing to teachers. Teachers must report signs of student dishonesty.

"It is very, very easy for me to tell whether a student has plagiarized because I've been reading their work all year long," Hornick said. When a student's writing suddenly includes correct punctuation, a slew of new vocabulary or new sentence structures, Hornick smells a rat.

The source of the lifted material often is the Internet, but the Web can be a two-edged sword: Teachers do key-word searches of suspicious phrases and often pinpoint the Internet page where they came from, Hornick said.

Allegations are turned over to the honor council's investigators, Hornick and science teacher Bill Dunn, who are also the council's faculty advisers.

"We kind of serve like a one-man grand jury," gathering evidence and interviewing witnesses and suspects, Dunn said.

Sometimes an investigator decides the accusation is unwarranted, and there is no case.

If an investigation yields enough evidence, a dossier of evidence and testimony is forwarded to the council. The accused student is notified, as well as his or her parents.

On a recent Friday after the last class bell, the tribunal gathered to hear three cases. Because of confidentiality rules, names of the accused were withheld and access to proceedings was not allowed.

But Kevin Gutermuth, a council member, outlined the cases beforehand.

"Today we have one where a student plagiarized on a paper," Gutermuth said. "She borrowed information that wasn't hers in order to, she says, 'flesh out' her paper." The alleged plagiarized information came from the Internet.

The second case involved a student accused of taking lab equipment he didn't need and keeping it until prodded to return it, Gutermuth said.

The third case? More plagiarism - on a paper for religion class.

Once the council convenes, the accused is asked if he or she has anything to say. Some do, some don't. The next step is discussion of the evidence and allegations.

That's where the honor council's teaching moments often occur.

Lots of students don't realize that plagiarism consists of taking information or text without crediting the original source, said council chair Elena Gardner, a senior. "Many times when they already admit to what they've done, it's more of a discussion of trying to get across what they did that was wrong."

The student jurists also explain what honor means at Sullivan.

"One of the phrases I use a lot is, it's a 'breach of trust' between the teacher and student," Elena said. "Our premise is that in a trusting environment, you'll be able to learn better."

By the time the council's members seclude themselves to hash over the case, the accused student often has admitted wrongdoing. Guilt or innocence is decided by a majority vote.

The court has a free hand in recommending penalties, ranging from an apology by the accused to expulsion. Cheating on homework usually merits an F grade or a zero score.

But the council wants to reform students, not hang 'em high.

When plagiarism stems from ignorance, "instead of punishing the students, they had to redo the paper and make sure they actually understood the whole process and try to bridge the disconnect of not realizing it was plagiarism or cheating," Elena said.

Sullivan's dean of students discusses the proposed penalty with the council's faculty adviser and chair. He has authority to change the sanction but hasn't yet, Dunn said.

So far, Sullivan's council has judged about 20 cases, and Elena is convinced her classmates have a fresh understanding of honor.

Initially, "There were a lot of people who were skeptical and didn't think it would ever work, that cheaters would always be cheaters," she said. "But for the most part, I think people are starting to take a closer look at their actions."

Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417, steven.vegh@pilotonline.com