High School Student Kicked Out of Honors Program For Cheating…After Signing Anti-Cheating Pledge

Back when I was in honors classes at high school, the rules were pretty simple: you get caught cheating, you get kicked out. Why is this so hard for some people to understand?

In northern California, a high school sophomore was kicked out of his honors English class after he was caught copying off of another student. The parents of the boy are now suing the school for kicking their son out of the honors program. But here's the kicker: the boy signed an "Academic Honesty Pledge" at the beginning of the school year, stating very plainly that any student caught cheating will be immediately removed from the honors program.

Of course, the parents aren't going to let a little thing like that keep them from suing.

The boy's father, Jack Berghouse, does not dispute that his son copied his English homework from another student, who also was kicked out of the honors class for the offense. But Berghouse said he believes the punishment is disproportionate to the offense and will jeopardize his son's academic future.

"He knows it's wrong," Berghouse said Tuesday. "You cannot imagine the mental and emotional penalty that has been inflicted upon him. He is a student who has a chance to do just about anything, and he thinks that this could take that away from him. We've offered several penalties, anything other than being kicked out of the English program."

The lawsuit claims that the boy's due process rights are being violated, and that the school's definition of cheating is "vague and conflicting," so it should not be enforced.

Give me a break. This lawsuit is going to be thrown out if the courts have any sense. But more importantly, this is another example of those helicopter parents who can't stand the thought of their "precious little snowflakes" doing anything wrong or failing at anything, and will do anything to make sure their kids succeed at everything, even if they have to bend the rules and ignore common sense to do so.

Parents need to back off and let their kids experience the consequences of the choices they've made. It's the only way they're going to learn for themselves.