ANOTHER FIRST, FOR ME

I caught a student cheating on a quiz this week. That was a first for me. He was seated in the front row and I saw him suspiciously peaking at the floor. I wanted to investigate so I walked the length of the classroom and sure enough, his review sheet lay in plain view at his feet. He sort of hastily kicked it away under the desk as I passed by, like it was an old friend from high school that ended up getting into the wrong crowd and now he was now trying to dissociate from it and all of the immoral things it represented. When he handed his quiz in, I was made dizzy by his darting eyes.

The following day I handed the quizzes back, graded. I handed them all back, save one. When I excused the class he didn’t ask me for his quiz. Instead he tried to slip out of the classroom unnoticed. But I called his ass back in.

I waited for the other students to leave before I gave him back his test. I told him that I saw what he was doing yesterday. He didn’t deny it. I told him that cheating could get him expelled from school, easy. He didn't say anything. I told him that I gave him a zero on the quiz and I truly hope he makes a better decision next time. He mumbled something inaudible and then slunk out of the room like a mollusk, an annelid, a protozoan. You get the idea, some kind of invertebrate.