Blair adopts a wide-ranging student honor code

Blair's Instructional Council ratified a school-wide honor code on Dec 5 that will take effect at the beginning of second semester. The honor code regulates a range of academic and non-academic offenses, including plagiarism, cheating, lying and forgery.

According to administrator Linda Wanner, Blair decided to institute the honor code so that students would know exactly what constitutes an offense. "Our goal is to clarify what is and what is not acceptable so that students who would commit possible infractions would realize the immorality of their actions," said Wanner.

The honor code defines violations such as cheating on tests, fabrication of information and plagiarism and also requires students to affirm that they will not forge teachers' signatures in their planbooks or wear other students' IDs. All students will be required to sign a form pledging that they "understand, support and agree to follow" the code's provisions.

Wanner added that the adoption of the honor code will result in virtually no changes in the consequences for plagiarism and other offenses. Punishments for academic violations, she said, vary throughout the county and are determined on a case-by-case basis.

At Blair, the consequences for an academic violation, which are determined by Principal Phillip Gainous, range from an automatic zero on an assignment or test to suspension if the students involved are thought to be part of a cheating conspiracy, according to Wanner.

Some students think that the honor code will not deter their peers from committing academic violations. "I know kids who have cheated on tests and homework, and I think they knew that what they were doing was wrong, so I don't think the honor code would have prevented them from cheating," said senior Damean Mcfarlane.

The honor code states that students shall not "intentionally or knowingly help someone else violate the honor code." However, the honor code does not require students to turn in other students that they know have violated its provisions.

Students who believe they have been unjustly accused or punished by a teacher for an honor code violation may appeal to the Honor Council. The council, which developed the honor code, is composed of Wanner, social studies resource teacher Cherie McGinn, business teacher Robert Hopkins and science resource teacher Glenda Torrence.

According to Wanner, the honor code is based partially on the Code of Academic Integrity, which the Communication Arts Program (CAP) established for its students in 1999. The CAP code, which was modeled after honor codes at the University of Maryland and Northwestern University, stays close to standards outlined in the Blair Student Handbook, according to CAP history teacher George Vlasits.

Vlasits, who co-wrote the CAP honor code with CAP media teacher Christopher Lloyd, favors a school-wide honor code. "We want to change the ‘anything's-okay-as-long-as-you-get-away-with-it' approach to one which values honesty in academics," said Vlasits.