Commack High School
Universal Student Academic Integrity Declaration
Academic Mission Statement:
We at Commack High School seek to create an academic environment based on integrity, honesty and hard work. For the good of all, we will emphasize the following:
Policy:
Students are responsible for the integrity of their own work. A student’s name on an exercise or assessment (homework, report, notebook, performance, project, quiz, examination or research paper etc.) is taken as an assurance that the work submitted is the direct result of the student’s own thoughts, stated in his or her own words, and produced without the assistance of others. Any violation of this intended standard is regarded as cheating. Cheating is defined as actions including, but not limited to, copying answers from another student during a test, exam, part of a project, homework assignment, class work or lab work, using unauthorized help sheets, obtaining tests or individual test questions without the teacher’s knowledge or consent, providing test questions and/or answers to another student, and all forms of unauthorized collusion (when teachers ask students to work together students will be clearly advised as to which parts of the assignment need to be performed independently). In addition, a student is not authorized to use any portion of another’s work without giving proper credit, assist or knowingly allow one’s own work to be plagiarized, purchase or download any work written by another, and/or copy and paraphrase another’s ideas without giving proper credit. Regarding work in a lab group, your final written report must be the product of your own efforts. Your lab write up is your own. For all assignments, activities, or assessments, unethical actions such as cheating, copying, and/or plagiarism will result in a zero on the assignment, for all students involved.
Consequences for cheating are the following:
- On any assessment (as defined above) the student will receive a zero, the parent or guardian will be contacted, and the incident will be documented in the Dean’s file.
- On any external test (SAT, ACT, RCT, AP, IB, Regents’ Examinations, etc.) the student will receive a zero, the parent or guardian will be contacted, there will be follow up as per the testing authority’s guidelines, and the incident will be documented in the Dean’s file.
- In both of the above instances, in addition to documenting the event in the Dean’s file, the student will be subject to the appropriate discipline in accordance with the District’s Code of Conduct.
- In any situations where a dispute exists regarding the validity of the charge or the suitability of the punishment, the student will have the right to appeal the decision to the Principal. If the student disputes the Principal’s determination, he or she may appeal the Principal’s decision to the Superintendent of Schools or his or her designee. The student and his or her parents or guardian may submit their appeal to the Superintendent of Schools together with any written documentation. The Superintendent will consider the appeal and any documentation received and render a written decision within 10 business days. The student and his or her parents or guardians may appeal the decision of the Superintendent of Schools to the Board of Education. The student and parents or guardians may submit any written documentation to be considered by the Board of Education with the appeal. The Board of Education will consider the appeal and render a decision within 60 days.