Iktae Park
Staff Writer
A new ethics policy is now in effect because of inconsistent consequences given to violators of the previous policy.
The new policy emphasizes progressive discipline, using a system of demerits which are accumulated throughout a student’s high school career.
This new policy will enforce punishments according to the points corresponding to the offense. Students can receive two to six points of demerit for their first offense, and each point thereafter warrants a new consequence.
These punishments range from one hour of detention for copying homework to four days of suspension for altering grade records or stealing a test.
“The expectations are the same,” Principal Julie Ruisinger said. “We expect you guys to be honest. When you violate the policy you are going to have consequences. It is just that in the students point of view, consequences are as severe.”
The administration has stated that an average student’s high school career will not be significantly affected by this new policy because violations occur less than 30 times per year at Mira Costa.
“The previous policy was so incredibly severe that a teacher would say, ‘This kid cheated. Oh, if I send him down this is what’s going to happen.’ That’s pretty harsh,” Vice Principal Jaime Mancilla said.
“So we’re trying to find a policy that a teacher could say, ‘This is your cheating offense. I’m going to enforce it because I feel it’s appropriate.’ And then we follow through and give the consequence,” Mancilla said.
A committee for this new policy was formed by teacher representatives from departments who met at the beginning of the spring semester in 2009.
The final draft was printed after a long process of edits which eventually required the approval of the district office, district attorney and all the members of the committee.
“Wherever you want to cover yourself, and be supportive for your policy, you also want to have integrity,” teacher Glenn Marx said. “We had to make sure it was not a bad policy that was easily fought by people, but on the other hand we had to make sure it had integrity.”
The administration said that the previous ethics policy was effective because of its strictness. For example, the consequences that students received for copying homework and plagiarizing were the same. However, with the new policy, a student who copied homework is treated more leniently than those who plagiarize.
Student reactions to the new ethics policy are mixed.
“I think the ethics policy is going in the right direction, but it doesn’t allow much room for careless mistakes, and it’s a bit strict,” freshman Abha Nath said.
Other students believe that the new ethics policy will not be effective.
“Although the new ethics policy has honorable intentions, I am not sure how useful it will be in deterring and catching students,” senior Gabrielle Gold said.
“People make mistakes, people run out of time, all kinds of things happen. But when you do run out of time or when you are too tired to study for test or exam, you take the grades you get,” Ruisinger said.
“You don’t immediately start thinking about, what’s plan B. That’s just not right. In college they don’t have to deal with that type of thing. So we would like you to learn to be honest. Take that zero gratefully,” Ruisinger said.
Leave a Reply