Cheating

So we had to go to a wake yesterday. Which meant that I was picking Caitlyn up from school so that we could hurry home, start homework, and then head to the wake. I get there a few minutes early and hang out waiting with a few other parents. I see Caitlyn's class come out, but I don't see Caitlyn. My eyes start searching all over for her, and then I see her standing by the doors of the building. So I think, "Maybe she didn't see me standing here?" So I give her a little wave, then another, and then a third when there is no response. Then I see the look on her face and realize that she is standing with the teacher. So I start to head over to the doors to see what the problem is. I figured maybe she hurt herself or was upset about something. Either way, it was evident that the teacher needed to talk to me.

It would appear that Caitlyn thought it was a good idea to attempt to cheat on her math test. Not a huge test, like on a unit of skills, but on the multiplication test that they take a few days a week. The students have 45 seconds to answer 24 multiplication problems. All of the problems are in the same number family. So each kid could be on a different number depending on what their individual skill level is. Caitlyn is currently on 4's. She has created so much anxiety within herself over this silly little quiz. See, for every family they complete, they get to add a piece to their ice cream sundae on the bulletin board. Caitlyn has a dish, a spoon, and a banana (she has completely 1's, 2's, and 3's). When she completes her 4's, she gets her first of 3 scoops of ice cream.

Needless to say, she is dying to get that scoop and will apparently do ANYTHING it takes to get that scoop. Which includes taking out one of the quizzes from last week and turning it in as yesterday's quiz (she is one of those kids that completes it even when the 45 seconds is up to practice, so she has many completed ones). When the teacher called "time" on the test, she decided to pull out an old one and turn that one in as opposed to the one that she didn't finish.

And she wasn't even slick about it. Got caught immediately after.

And she prompted the student across from her to do the same. And get caught as well.

The teacher immediately pulled them out of the room and made them wait in the hall....ON THE BENCH!!! (There is a bench in the hall for students who are waiting to get a firm talking to.) It was there that Caitlyn began to cry uncontrollably.

So, the punishment from school is that an incident letter is written up and sent to the assistant principal, who acts as the dean and deals with most of the discipline. There is a possibility that she will have to talk to him. And this, I can honestly say, scares the ever living shit out of her! She is terrified of this man, and I have no idea why. I think she is just terrified of what he represents, she just can separate the two yet.

As for the punishment that is to come at home, well we haven't decided on one just yet. She decided that she needed to write a letter of apology to the teacher, which I thought was a good idea. Matt and I are trying to determine what to take away from her for a couple of days. More than likely it will be the TV. Which will torture her I'm sure. Or the Wii. There was also a loooooong discussion about why this isn't the way to go about getting something that you want in school. And I threw the honor roll and good citizenship awards that she has gotten at her. Made sure that she understands these things may not be possible to get if she continues to cheat.

As of this morning, the child was still upset over what she had done and what was going to happen because of it. Hopefully, she will be able to move past this very quickly....and just memorize her damn multiplication facts!!!