9 Things Fall Apart at Alamo Heights High School

Introduction

In November 2016, leading up to Thanksgiving, Alamo Heights, a prestigious and wealthy high school in San Antonio, Texas faced a large-scale academic dishonesty scandal (McNeel, 2016) in two different classes. Three English teachers noticed identical answers submitted by a class of freshmen who had been assigned some analytical questions from the book Things Fall Apart. The similarity and sophistication of students’ answers raised suspicion, and it was later discovered that sample essays from a teacher’s English resource guide had been circulating online, containing answers to the assignment. The PDF guide was created and uploaded by someone who had used the same curriculum guides purchased by the Alamo Heights English department, though there’s no information on who exactly this person is.

An investigation was launched, revealing that over 90 students had been involved in using the guide,  allegedly copying wording and phrasing from the sample essays. In addition, 38 students in a third-year U.S. History class were found to have copied from Wikipedia on a take-home assignment. Assistant Superintendent for Administrative Services at the Alamo Heights School District, Dr. Frank Alfaro, put out a statement claiming that the evidence used to accuse these students contained similarities in terminology, similarities in words, and sentences that high school students wouldn’t normally use (Sridhar 2016). The students who were involved faced no “disciplinary consequences”, but rather classroom consequences which were decided by individual teachers – this included “not counting” the English assignment and giving the history students the option to redo their assignment for “half credit.”. A statement from Alamo Heights’ principal informed parents that the incident would not influence a student’s transcript or permanent record. Some parents viewed the response as an inconsequential “slap on the wrist,” with one parent saying “A lot gets swept under the rug and a lot of people get away with a lot of things at Alamo Heights because of the money.” (Sridhar 2016).

The Principal’s Letter to Parents

The school’s principal, Dr. Cordell Jones, sent out a letter addressing the incident. However, the letter provided information about everything except the incident itself. He addressed the school’s  24-hour code, which is a code that states students can face consequences in their extracurricular involvements for any incidents that happen outside of a school setting (McNeel, 2016). The letter left parents with unanswered questions, as it failed to clarify what exactly happened; what the consequences would be, if any; and what action the school planned on taking moving forward. The lack of clear communication between parents and the administration led to more frustration and confusion. Dr. Alfaro admitted that the poor communication of the letter was due to issues in how it was delivered through digital platforms, leading to misunderstandings (Sridhar, 2016).

Consequences 

In the weeks that followed the letter, the school announced the consequences the students would face. Those who voluntarily admitted to cheating received a 2-week suspension from extracurricular activities, while those who failed to come forward faced a stricter 3-week suspension from their extracurricular activities. (Sridhar 2016). Dr. Alfaro emphasized that the concern was on the scale of the incident. He went on to state “It’s important to note that there were no disciplinary consequences per se. There were classroom consequences which were up to the teachers” (Sridhar, 2016). Disciplinary consequences are harsher than classroom consequences, resulting in a notation of misconduct in the student’s academic record, affecting their future educational careers. Classroom consequences are less severe and do not involve future harm for the student’s academic career, such as loss of privileges. He also stated that technology makes it much more difficult to control the spread of answers.

The school’s community was divided in response to the level of punishment. Some people felt the disciplinary actions were not severe enough. A parent of a former student of Alamo Heights voiced frustration, saying, “I think if you do the crime, you should do the time”(Sridhar, 2016).

Petition

Following the incident, 437 people signed a petition arguing that the standards for enforcing the academic integrity policy at Alamo Heights were not well established and arbitrarily applied (Veritas 2016). They expressed concern that ever since the 24-hour code and the academic integrity policy were introduced, the number of infractions occurring at Alamo Heights went up (Veritas 2016). Parents were concerned that there was an inequitable environment at Alamo Heights, causing fear and confusion among students and parents. They clarified that they were not against the existence of the policy, but rather were concerned about the administration’s enforcement, wanting to revise the code with input from the community after what they believed was a disastrous enforcement in the proceeding scandal.

Discussion Questions

1. Do you believe that cheating on a large scale implicates a failure in the education system, the students, or both?
2. Do you think Alamo Heights being a “wealthy” and “prestigious” school influenced the outcome of this case?
3. What do you make of the distinction between “disciplinary” and “classroom” consequences in the way the school’s academic integrity policy was enforced?
4. Do you think the consequences the students faced were fair? What would you have done differently if you were the principal?
5. What do you think of the application of the “24-hour code” in this case?

References 

McNeel, B. (2020, January 31). Getting to the heart of the Alamo Heights cheating scandal. San Antonio Report. https://sanantonioreport.org/getting-to-the-heart-of-the-alamo-heights-cheating-scandal/

Scribd. (2016, December 1). Alamo Heights HS Letter regarding cheating students PDF. Scribd. https://www.scribd.com/document/332951191/Alamo-Heights-HS-letter-regarding-cheating-students-pdf

Sridhar, P. (2016, December 2). 128 Alamo Heights High School students caught cheating. KENS 5. https://www.kens5.com/article/news/education/128-alamo-heights-high-school-students-caught-cheating/273-362217159

A.H. Veritas. (2016). Provide feedback on AHISD enforcement of academic integrity policy and code of leadership [Petition]. Alamo Heights Independent School District Board.