Turn It In and Plagiarism

All secondary students will be using an online program to submit all written papers. This program is called Turn It In (www.turnitin.com). Turn It In will check your student's work for plagiarism. Academic integrity is essential to the success of your student in High School as well as further education. This tool is used to help students understand the importance of academic integrity as well as a preemptive attempt to keep the work of the student honest. It is not just a tool for catching cheaters. Other benefits to the Turn It In online program are that now most of your students papers will be graded electronically and will be stored electronically as well as on your personal computer, and the students will have an opportunity to submit papers on some assignments for peer review. Going paperless means less cost to the students, the parents, the teachers, and the school, as well as being more environmentally friendly.

Your student will receive training in the classroom on how to set up and use Turn It In. Instructions will also be posted to Renweb under the class documents page for you to use as a reference to help your student navigate through Turn It In. It is a very simple program but should you have any questions feel free to contact Mr. Van Dyke at tjvandyke@ccsroyals.com.

Here is some basic information on what Plagiarism is, and you can go to http://www.plagiarism.org/understanding-plagiarism to get more detailed information about plagiarism.

What is Plagiarism?

Many people think of plagiarism as copying another's work, or borrowing someone else's original ideas. But terms like "copying" and "borrowing" can disguise the seriousness of the offense.

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, to "plagiarize" means

to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own
to use (another's production) without crediting the source
to commit literary theft
to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.

In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterward.

If you should have any questions please contact your teacher or the school administration. Thank you for helping us to keep academic integrity a priority in our students' education.

Handbook Policy:

Academic integrity is a standard that should be maintained by all students at CCS. Cheating offenses apply to any cheating incident in, or outside of, any class on a test, quiz, daily work, or homework, including plagiarism* on papers. Cheating offenses are cumulative throughout the academic year. This policy will apply to any student who cheats or enables another student to cheat.

At Community Christian School, we believe originality is central to all academic endeavors. Part of our mission is to provide a sound academic program, equipping students to meet the opportunities for their generation. We provide an atmosphere conducive to academic excellence, spiritual growth, and personal discipline. To that end, we believe it is parents' expectation, along with the administration and faculty, that students are given the skills to learn, research, and analyze to produce newly insightful work. All work produced for a grade will be the original product of a student’s endeavors to meet those academic goals.

*Plagiarism is submitting work as your own that is copied from any source, book, or electronic media. AI technology, such as ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) from OpenAI, along with other AI apps, generates original work without students building essential critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Using this technology to submit assignments at Community Christian School will result in the same disciplinary consequences as outlined in the student handbook for cheating and plagiarism, since the work was not generated by the student.

1. On the first offense:

For cheating on homework, the student will receive a zero on the assignment, ten (10) demerits, and possible suspension of 1 to 3 days (with zeros).
For cheating on a quiz, test, or a paper that counts as a test grade, students will receive a 1–3-day suspension. Suspension will be at the discretion of the administration.

2. On the second offense, the student may be required to go before the school board for possible expulsion. Discipline will be at the discretion of the administration.