Father refuses to challenge son’s failing grade after teen caught plagiarizing his English essay

Plagiarism has become commonplace thanks to advances in artificial intelligence. But there are a few ways to spot plagiarism quite easily. A father took to Reddit to share how he decided not to support his son after he plagiarized an important assignment. The father, u/NotFixingSonsGrade, revealed that his decision caused a rift between the boy’s parents. He sought advice on whether or not he was wrong to discourage his son from misbehaving at school.

The father began his message by questioning whether he had done the right thing by letting his son fail an important assignment and telling him that he deserved the bad grade he got. He then went on to tell the story of how his son, Devin, had plagiarized an entire essay for his English assignment by copying sentences from Cliffnotes. All he did was replace some of the letters in the essay with specific Russian letters that looked exactly like the original English letters. “It’s not like Devin plagiarized unintentionally. My son knew exactly what he was doing,” the father clarified in his message.

Even though Devin’s essay managed to bypass plagiarism detection software, his teacher discovered that Devin had copied his essay from Cliffnotes. The father was informed of his son’s actions and that Devin would receive a zero for his assignment. “Devin’s grade dropped to a D. Devin asked me to fight the school to get his grade corrected. I told him no, and that he deserved a zero. If you’re struggling with an essay, you need to get help. You’re not trying to cheat your way out of it,” the disappointed father explained.

“Devin’s mother, Emma, ​​called me because she had just received his report card in the mail and saw the D in English. Devin hadn’t told his mother what had happened and it was too late to appeal the zero now that the grades had already been finalized,” the father mentioned. Emma asked Devin’s father why he refused to appeal the school and teacher who had given him a bad grade. The father explained that he wanted this to serve as a lesson to Devin, who was set to graduate from college in a few years.

“Emma argued that a D would seriously harm Devin’s college prospects. She said she didn’t condone what Devin did and would have been okay with a homeschooling punishment like grounding Devin. But she said I was a terrible parent for subjecting our son to a punishment that she believes could have serious consequences for his future. Unless Devin is applying to an Ivy League college (which he has no interest in), I doubt a D would destroy his college prospects. I have a hard time understanding Emma’s perspective and need more input,” the post concluded. The Reddit community supported the father’s actions and assured him that everything he did was for the sake of his son’s brighter future.

u/Willing-Helicopter26 joked: “This is a natural consequence of Devin’s actions. Parents fighting to overturn rightfully given bad grades is one of the reasons teachers struggle and it only leads kids to think they don’t have to answer for their bad behavior.” u/CanterCircles pointed out: “I mean, what were you supposed to do? He plagiarized and the teacher can very easily prove it. Arguing with the teacher or administration would be pointless, he got what he deserved and that wouldn’t change.” u/fomaaaaa commented: “How could you even fight a zero in this case? He very clearly and knowingly plagiarized and he took steps specifically designed to avoid being caught. There is no basis to defend yourself on. I would like to know what Emma would have said to try to get the grade changed.”