Lexington High School Honor Code

Sponsored by LHS Student-Faculty Senate, passed on in 1999

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Revised Senate Attendance Bill

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Sense of the Senate

A core value of an institution that seeks to maintain high moral and ethical standards is the intolerance of cheating in any form. Cheating undermines both the integrity of the perpetrator as well as that of the school. In presenting a code of conduct based on individual integrity and ethics, we aim to create a vision of what we would like our community to be. The Honor Code intends to reduce the level of unhealthy competition in the school by shifting peer pressure away from cheating and toward ethical behavior.

  1. The following will be considered cheating*:

a. The willful giving or receiving of an unauthorized, dishonest, or unscrupulous advantage in academic work.

b. The above may be accomplished by any means whatsoever, including, but not limited to, the following: fraud, duress, deception, theft, talking, signs, gestures, copying from another student, unauthorized collaboration, and the unauthorized use of study aids, memoranda, books, electronic programs, data or other information.

c. Attempted Cheating.

  1. The following will be considered plagiarism*:

a. Presenting as one’s own the words, the work, or the opinions of someone else without prior acknowledgement.

b. Borrowing the sequence of ideas, the arrangement of material, or the pattern of thought of someone else without proper acknowledgement.

  1. If a student cheats or plagiarizes, she or he may receive zero for the entire assignment and may not qualify for make up of the assignment subject to the teacher’s discretion. The School reserves the right to assign additional penalties based on the severity of the offense up to and including suspension or expulsion.

  2. In order to prevent misunderstandings, at the beginning of each course the teacher will clarify what constitutes a violation of the Honor Code in his/her class. This should include an explanation of*:

a. The extent to which collaboration or group participation is permissible in preparing term papers, laboratory exhibits or notebooks, reports of any kind, tests, quizzes, examination, homework or any other work.

b. The extent to which the use of study aids, memoranda, books, data, or other information is permissible to fulfill course requirements.

c. Guidelines on what constitutes plagiarism, including requirements for citing sources.

*Adapted from the George Mason University Honor Code.