[sweet_loveee]

My teacher claims that I and two other students cheated on a exam. Her basis for this accusation is that:
1. Two students have told her their suspicion of us cheating. (the only students in that area were us!!!)
2. Our answers seem very similar.
The test was partly multiple choice, and the rest was true/ false with a short essay question at the end. The teacher says that 3 of our questions were marked wrong the same which she thinks is enough to prove that we were collaborating. Mind you, the test had 50 + questions.
Also, the teacher wasn't there when we took the test. We were outside. I know it makes us look even more guilty, but she DID leave us unsupervised so she didn't catch the cheating with her own eyes. Also, because we were outside it's impossible that any of our classmates could have "seen" us cheating. Plus we really didn't. One of the other girls already talked to the teacher about our side of the story but she refuses to change her mind. We've received a zero on the exam and now I have an overall grade of F in the class. I'm going to talk to the teacher again on Monday and I think it seems that it's now necessary to bring in my parents and the principal or vice principal. What are your thoughts?


Also: I have an excellent history in all my other classes and I've always been a good student. There's no need for me to cheat....
I'm having really bad anxiety issues over this. Anyone with any ideas please answer! I have a clean track record and if this zero stays my whole high school career is over.

[chewy130]

you get an F? and she has no proof? Thats not right, if she doesn't fix it you can try suing her or something.

[sweet_loveee]

Well, her proof is:::::
Our highly suspicious test taking situation (we had no supervision)
Two separate students informed her (ok well THOSE two tattlers have NO proof because they were INSIDE and we were OUTSIDE. even if we did cheat, how would they know? it's all fake here)
Similar test answers (seriously, the test was designed so that some questions were tricky. What if we just all fell for it. And true/false answers, you can't even have that many choices. There are some bound to be the same.)

[papiroflexia]

My teacher claims that I and two other students cheated on a exam. Her basis for this accusation is that:
1. Two students have told her their suspicion of us cheating. (the only students in that area were us!!!)
2. Our answers seem very similar.

Well, the questions were based on what you learned right? So they HAD to be pretty much similar.
The teacher only got suspicious because of what 2 OTHER students said? That's not proof.
The only reason she ever thought you guys cheated was because she was "tipped off" by other students w/o proof.
Just speculations and assumptions. Has your teacher ever heard of coincidence?
And those students were inside and you guys were outside what proof do they have that you guys cheated?
How did they know, right?

Hmm, ask her to check other students' work. If majority fell for the same trick questions then she can't accuse you guys of cheating. It's just that her questions were tricky and you guys had the same thought, plus, you guys we from the same class learning from the same teacher.

Basically;
- Ask her to check other students' work for similar mistakes. (The whole class can't be cheating can they?)
- Tell her that the test was based of her teaching, so answers had to be similar. How can she think that just because of a coincidence and a couple of similar answers are proof you guys cheated? It's not if you think about it. Unless all were the same.
- Have you been doing good in her class until this incident? Tell her that how it is that you've been doing good so far until you were accused of cheating that she started getting suspicious.
- Point out to her the fact that the students we inside and you guys were outside, how is it that they found you guys cheating? (Be careful with this one, it kind of sounds like you guys DID cheat and the kids found out, but you're trying to play it off.)
- Better to bring in principal, vice, and parents. It shows you're serious about it. I would for my grades' sake.
- Sadly retake the test? I wouldn't though just use that option ^ before getting to this one.

[PRINCE KYARII]

her proof is weak.. she and the students sound like they hold a grudge on you or something
i think you should bring in your parents and principle.. you know you didnt cheat, nothing to loose
it'll show youre serious and if you did cheat.. you wouldnt make a big deal out of it
and you said the two students that accused you didnt even see you cheating and all
tell the teacher and principle what you know..

[deeism]

definitely bring in principal and/or parents. if possible, try to find another teacher you are familiar with that can back you up with how you're a good student.

there's no legit proof, and she DID leave her classroom unsupervised. so can't possible have any proof. and anyways, teachers should know better to not trust other students because students LIE LIE LIE.

and as for your anxiety problem, go speak to a councilor. they'll probably help you out/assist you with your teacher.

good luck!!

[PDURRR]

if the teacher is being an ass and doesn't believe you at all, then definitely bring it to the attention of the dean or whoever supervises your teacher

[~*Chi*Angel*~]

I don't understand what you mean by they were 'inside' and you guys were 'outside'. Wasn't the exam taken in a classroom?

Were the questions the three of you missed essay questions or were they the multiple choice ones? If it was essay I can kinda understand why she's suspicious.
Did the three of you only get those 3 questions wrong or were there other questions that you guys didn't have the same answers to? If your test scores were different you could try to explain that if you guys collaborated then why would some of your answers be different.
Like the people before me suggested I would definite talk with your parents and principal. I'd fight for it. When your teacher sees how much effort your putting into prooving your innocence she might start thinking differently.

[sweet_loveee]

Basically, four students were absent and missed the exam on Friday.
We made up the test on Monday during regular class time. The teacher made us go right outside the classroom to take the test while she continued regular class indoors.
It's really her own fault for setting up such a risky environment.

Also, the questions that were "similar" were the multiple choice and the true false.
I mean seriously it's just one unlucky coincidence. Afterwards, I talked to some of my other classmates about questions we found were tricky / hard on the test. We all agreed that the questions were ambiguous and there was a certain level of uncertainty amongst students for those test questions.
I'm just mad that TWO PEOPLE lied to her. Wow.

Plus, my school is notorious for competitiveness and obsession with grades.
Now this could work against us. It could make us look like outright liars who are only trying to salvage our grades. But all three of us are good-goody two shoes girls who get very high grades in general. Someone out there is probably jealous and trying to drag us down because they see fit.

[_ijusswannabeme_]

i think you should really bring your parents and let them talk to your teacher.
Parents, I feel are the best people to show how serious you fell about
the accusation and it kind of shows the teacher how innocent you are
( I doubt someone who cheated would be thick-faced enough to bring
their parents in, even if they lie that they didn't cheat).
I'm a person who believes that the truth will come out someday-
if you really are innocent, then I'm sure she'll believe you.
Just don't give up hope and I really pray the best for you.
GOOD LUCK!

[des monstres]

since it's an academic problem, you should talk to the principal first. (:
if nothing happens, bring your parents into it.

the teacher has no proof!
and were the answers correct?
i mean.. it's a frikin' multiple choice test.



also, yeah.
i've had teachers put me out in the hallway for missed quizzes and tests.
and i've seen other students outside in the hallway as well.
not in college, though. lols, only hs.

[ANJEE<3]

bring it to your principal

she has no solid proof, it's all speculation

you don't deserve that F

bring your parents into this mix and i guarantee that you're going to be okay

[jaeka]

Same thing happened to be, except I was accused of plagarism. We had to write a review on anything of our choice. I decided to write a review on Alice nine's new album at the time, ALPHA.
She decided to fail me on it accusing me of plagarism. When I asked her what made her think that, she asked, "Why did you abbreviate guitar? to gt.?" Of course, I was like, "How the hell can you answer that!?" I didn't have an answer since it was just a stupid question. ;_; She also gave me the link to the website in which she thought I had copied off. That very same night I went home and typed in the link she gave me. Unsurprisingly, the link was invalid and she had no proof. I told her this the very next day and she told me to not dig myself a deeper hole and that a letter was being sent out to my parents.

My parents recieved the letter and naturally, all hell broke lose. My parents thought I had copied it and said I was no better than her. I tried to explain that I was in the same room as them when I wrote the review, but they denied it and said how could they know.

I was fighting a losing battle and so to not make things worse, I simply re-did it and got an A.

But, a guy in my class copied his whole review off a very well known website, and he managed to get an A. We told the teacher that he had copied and she refused to believe us.
Favourtism? I think yes. with all the trimmings.

I wish I could have some decent advice to help you but from my experience, there's no way out. But I think you should raise this matter with your parents first, take them to school and sort it out there. I know how it feels. It sucks. a lot.

[sweet_loveee]

Yeah, life is so unfair. That's just the way it is.
Another girl and I am going to calmly approach the teacher tomorrow and explain our side of things.
If that still fails,
parents + admin it is.
You see,
even if we WERE guilty, she still doesn't have enough of a claim against us.
Silently accepting her punishment shows we are definitely guilty.
Defending ourselves may make all three of us look like not only cheaters, but low-life liars, but that's her opinion.

[TerioN]

Yeah, life is so unfair. That's just the way it is.
Another girl and I am going to calmly approach the teacher tomorrow and explain our side of things.
If that still fails,
parents + admin it is.
You see,
even if we WERE guilty, she still doesn't have enough of a claim against us.
Silently accepting her punishment shows we are definitely guilty.
Defending ourselves may make all three of us look like not only cheaters, but low-life liars, but that's her opinion.

Better to look like low-life liars then be failing a class XD Then when you ace the class, go point and laugh at your teacher =)

[silver_skies]

Threaten to bring in a lawyer haha. That should probably scare your teacher.

[damyoungji]

It seems like the teacher has a person grudge against you and/or the other two students "caught for cheating".

Go talk to her again, along with the two other accused students. If she refuses to change her mind, bring it to the principal. It is not right for her to listen to the "witnesses" and completely dismiss your story. From my point of view, she is playing favorites right here. The "witnesses" are probably just trying to mess with you guys as they gain favoring points from the teacher. Like you mentioned, she left you guys unsupervised, which is big no-no already. Even the most trustworthy students should not be left unsupervised during an assessment. When you take this to the principal, mention it. It will be her fault for being such an irresponsible teacher. Even if she says something along the lines about trusting you three enough to be left unsupervised, that is not a valid reason. She should have been there, and if she was busy, she should have let you guys write the test another time.

If anything, maybe you three will have to re-write the test again (another version of course). Unless there is proof (i.e. videotaped), she should not dismiss your side of the story. You do have an upper-hand of winning this argument. I am rather surprised that your school does not create different versions, too - unless this only happens in college/university and not in high school. It's been about four years since I graduated high school, so I don't remember.

[크리스틴]

Same here but I'm in college now. It's pretty ridiculous, I was accused of working with a girl on a lab report just because our graphs looked exactly the same. Just the graphs. Nothing else. We have the same data, we are lab partners. So I don't understand how our data graphs would not look similar. But it went to the professor and he plans on giving us a zero. I seriously started bawling cause I've never been called upon with such matters and I couldn't believe what was happening. But now I'm taking it to the Office of Integrity to get it sort out. I don't believe I deserve a zero with all the hard work I put into that lab. So argue all you can. Fight for it. I am going to try...Hope it all works out for you.

[Trinity <3]

Ask for a re-test and prove yourself If she refuses then straight up and tell her that she has no grounds to accuse you, and bring it to the principal!

[lidge_fan]

^ I agree! Demand another test and prove yourself!

It doesn't sound like anything you say can change your teacher's mind so demand another test. Prove that you didn't cheat! If you're not guilty, then it's not fair or right to accept a bad grade.