Jake Tucker Acting Under Pressure

Acting Under Pressure Case Study and Analysis
Ethics 304
Ginny Hoyt, Adena Baer, Olivia Rubino, Mimi Leifer 

Acting Under Pressure
Jake Tucker, a thirteen year old boy, is an eighth grader at Winston Middle School in Frederick, Maryland. Jake returns to school the next week, and to his bewilderment he is presented with a history exam in Ms. Laufer's class. Jake had been up the entire night before with his mother in Johns Hopkins Hospital. His mother, Marsha, who was also the school nurse, had been diagnosed with breast cancer about fifteen months ago and this past week had taken a turn for the worst. Being a school in a very tight nit community it was well known throughout the school that Marsha was having serious health issues. As her only

relative in town, Jake felt that he needed to be there to support her.
For the past six years it has just been Jake and his mom and he felt responsibility to be there for her. Jake’s dad hadn't been in the picture for many years. Marsha had been raising Jake as a single mother throughout most of his childhood. Jake is an only child and has had a lot on his plate. He was shuffled between different family friends' homes over the last three months and hasn't had such a stable experience. All of his blood relatives live on the west coast and are not able to visit that often. Despite all of the instability, Jake was still able to keep up his grades. Jake is known for being a good student who is very driven.
Jake had been in class before winter break and recalled Mrs. Laufer informing the class about the test. In lieu of his stressful homelife, Jake forgot about the test and never had the chance to study. Ms. Laufer catches Jake with his phone hidden under his desk googling the date of the year the Declaration of Independence was signed.
Jake was a bright student and a hard worker.

He knew his history well but he hadn't had the opportunity to memorize all of the specific dates for the exam and he had missed many days of school accompanying his mom to her appointments and her hospital care. There was an entire section of the exam specifically devoted to dates. The section was worth half of the points of the exam. Without answering correctly, Jake would have failed and not been admitted into the honors history class for high school the next year. Had Jake known about the exam beforehand, and had time to properly study, he would have most likely done pretty well considering that he was an A student.
Ms. Laufer had a difficult decision to make. She has a bright student who was under an extreme amount of stress. Through difficult circumstances he had cheated on an exam he didn’t have the opportunity to prepare for. Should she hold him to the same standard as other students who might not have such a difficult home life? Or should she allow him to make up the test for partial credit, putting herself at risk when dealing with other students who are caught cheating in the future?
Discussion Questions:
1. What do you think Jake’s punishment should be, and why?
2. Should the knowledge of Jake’s home life affect his punishment?
3. Would you feel comfortable making the same decision for other students in the future?
4. Should the fact that Ms. Laufer is coworkers with Jake’s mom affect the decision of his punishment?
5. Should Jake be held to the same standards as any other

student?
6. Is there an age where cheating should be excusable under certain circumstances?

Acting under Pressure
Considering the situation at hand, a young boy whose mother is suffering from a terminal illness is caught cheating on a test after spending a weekend in the hospital with her. We decided that the best course of action would be for Ms. Laufer to excuse cheating in this instance by letting Jake make up the test for partial credit. For example, instead of letting Jake get 100% on his test, we would only let him receive up to an 80%, if he gets everything correct. We would consider Ms. Laufer a consequentialist, because she believes that Jake should be receiving the correct punishment, based on what he is going through, and not strictly basing his punishment off of the rules directly. “Consequentialism is the view that morality is all about producing the right kinds of overall consequences. Here the phrase “overall consequences” of an action means everything the action brings about, including the action itself” (Haines, 2014). We believe this is the best course of action because the student was under extremely stressful circumstances both at home and at school. At home, he was the only person who was there to morally support his mother, while at school, he felt the need to keep his grades up to keep his mother from worrying about him. It was clear from the case, that cheating was unusual for Jake’s character and not something he would typically do. Giving him this consequence, of only being able to receive partial credit on the second attempt of taking the exam, teaches Jake that cheating is always bad and never the right thing to resort to. At the same time, giving Jake another chance to complete the exam, even with only being able to receive partial credit, shows that Ms. Laufer has pity for his situation and understands that his behavior was not in line with who Jake really is. In this case study, we used the Utilitarian approach when evaluating Jake’s punishment. “Stripped down to its essentials, utilitarianism is a moral principle that holds that the morally right course of action in any situation is the one that produces the greatest balance of benefits over harms for everyone affected” (Velasquez, Andre, Shanks, and Meyer, 2014). We felt this approach was the most effective because it takes Jake’s circumstances under consideration and allows for the rules to be bent in Jake’s favor. We felt it was a moral obligation to consider Jake’s situation when deliberating for a resolution.
However, some could argue that that cheating is cheating no matter what the circumstances of the situation are. Cheating should be taken very seriously and no second chances for redemption should be offered. When a student cheats, he is not demonstrating that he has learned the material. Therefore, the teacher cannot adequately determine if her teaching was effective. It is important for Ms. Laufer to set a strict example for the rest of her class. She does not want other students thinking that they can get away with acting out in this manner. In education, it is important to be consistent when dealing with students and these types of extreme situations. A teacher should want to set the precedence that she has a firm set of values and that she will treat all students fairly. According to The Ethics of Teaching, “Educators are self-serving and soft-hearted...We need to do the same things with educators that we did with judges who are too soft on crime--take away their discretion and make them hand out tough penalties” (Strike, 2009). Although, in some cases, there are certainly some exceptions.
We feel as though this is not an appropriate or realistic perspective to have, especially when working with children. Any person under extreme circumstances is likely to act out of character and make questionable choices that they wouldn’t typically consider. To not take this into consideration when working with children in precarious circumstances is to commit a serious disservice to the child. Circumstances should always be considered as they reveal that the student isn’t always as at fault as they may appear. In our court system, circumstances are always considered, there is no reason why this shouldn’t carry over into our school systems as well.
Another perspective that could be taken, is to be more lenient on the student, and let Jake make up the test for full credit. There are so many other things going on in his life that are more important than an exam, it is understandable that he may have pushed it off his list of priorities. Jake felt an obligation to be there for his mom because he was the only person available to her. As a young student, he felt overwhelmed by all that was going on and focused solely on helping his mother. A teacher should be receptive towards these needs and make the accommodations necessary to help her students succeed in her class despite these circumstances. It would only be fair to Jake for him to have the opportunity to make up the test in a less stressed frame of mind.
This is not a fair solution for this situation for Jake or the other students in the class. Even though Jake was under extreme circumstances, he did commit a serious infraction. Although we believe that Jake shouldn’t be severely punished, we believe he still needs to be reprimanded for what he did as it was still wrong to do. To let him take the test for full credit lets him get away with his crime unscathed. Jake will come away from this thinking that he can get away with cheating and receive little to no punishment, which is not an example we want to set. Another consequence of this would be that other students in the class would learn that Jake was able to get away with cheating. In the future, if a child is caught cheating, they may demand the same treatment. As a teacher this would be a difficult situation to be in, as you need to be fair to all your students and treat them equally. To avoid such situations, we would not recommend letting Jake retake the test for full credit.