Guilty Until Proven Innocent

(I am in my ninth grade history class and we are given a writing assignment. I choose a subject I am very interested in, and am excited to do the paper because I normally get very poor grades due to confidence issues. This time I am confident about my ability. A couple days after I turn in my paper, my mother gets this phone call.)

Teacher: “I think [My Name] plagiarized her paper.”

Mom: “What?! She would never do that. What makes you think that?”

Teacher: “Frankly, it’s too good. One of the best papers I’ve ever had in this class. I know she couldn’t have done it.”

Mom: “She chose a subject she loves. Of course it’s good!”

Teacher: “She simply doesn’t have the work ethic to do this good of a paper. She needs to bring in all of the books she cited for this paper to prove she didn’t plagiarize.”

Mom: *furious but trying to stay calm* “Okay. If she brings them in what will her grade be?”

Teacher: “An ‘A,’ of course.”

Mom: “And if she doesn’t?”

Teacher: “A ‘D.'”

Mom: “I was with her when she went to the library for these. One of the books had a cover that was falling off, and I don’t think they will have it back in circulation. What if she can’t find it?”

Teacher: “That’s not my problem. I have no proof that book even exists.”

(My mom and I tried our valiant best to find another copy of that book, even looking in other libraries, to no avail. I ended up getting a “D” on “one of the best papers” to go through that class. For the record, I transferred schools and became a straight-A student and graduated a couple years ago with a double-major bachelor degree in the same amount of time as a single degree. Some teachers just need to show a little more faith in their students!)