wrongfully accused

[thiff1023]

I was recently terminated from a nursing program due to what they call "academic misconduct." They accused me of cheating on a pharmacology midterm and it resulted in termination. I do not understand how can they terminate me for supposedly cheating when they never saw it with their own eyes. I have tried to defend myself and other students who were there had tried to help me through this. I gave them an appeal along with another students letter to aid my appeal since she was a firsthand witness. Heres how it started: It was about 7 o'clock in the morning and a fellow student had asked if I would like to go to school early to review with her the midterm. I agreed and arrived to school at 7:45am. I walked into the classroom with her ONLY bringing along a pencil, highlighter, and my car keys. Other students had books and reviews with them so I had decided to review the math I was struggling in. I had asked her to help me and a student agreed to help me. We had asked another student for a piece of paper since I did not bring in my school bag. She made up two medical math problems from the top of her head and showed me how achieved the answer herself. The test was about to begin and without thinking twice, I had folded the paper and placed it under my desk with my car keys lying directly on top of it. As I took the midterm, NOT once did i ever retrieve the paper under my desk. The teacher was sitting behind the classroom and I was one of the student sitting in the back. If I had cheated, she would have been able to see me grab the paper, and unfold it. After I had finished taking the midterm, I walked to the back of the class and handed my teacher the test questions and scantron and returned to my desk. I picked up my pencil and highlighter and retrieved my keys under my desk. Along with it, I had taken out the paper and my teacher had asked what it was. I had told her it was nothing and it was a practice sheet. She looked over the paper and told me it would be considered cheating. I had told her I did not look at the paper at all and that they were made up. When I had returned to school the following Monday, I was called into the office to recieve a notice that as a result of the incident, I was being terminated from the vocational nursing program. It did not make sense to me at all. I had tried to tell the director what had happened, and stated that I can appeal it within 10 days. I gave in an appeal the next day with another students letter stating what had happened. After a few days, I had recieved a letter stating they reviewed my appeal but are "upholding my termination." I do not understand how this is possible. They cannot accuse and act on it as if they saw it with their own eyes. I knew many students had problems about the school and the program itself, but I would have never thought they can assume a student has cheated and terminate wronfully. Is this possible? Are they able to get away with this? Please help.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

I don't know what school. I assume you paid for it. What you could try doing is writing a certified letter stating the same thing and also getting an affidavit from your witnesses (this way you always have copies.) You might want to think of suing the school for your tuition - a full refund plus damages for lost time, etc. The bottom line is that this might leverage you into at least settling with them or forcing them to explain to a judge or arbitrator how they could terminate you without anything close to reasonable cause.