The Honor Council has been around at Oakton for two years, and has already had an impact on the students. This aspect of Oakton is for administration to keep students in line under the honor code, which states,“Integrity far outweighs any grade I could receive because it is a true representation of my character. In order to respect myself, I pledge to only put forth work that is my own and will encourage my peers to do the same.”
Most students think that the honor council is meant to hurt them, but it’s actually there to help students realize the consequences if they violate the honor code, and earn a second chance if they are unfairly violated. Charlie Moens, who has been a member of the honor council since freshman year, says the purpose of the honor council is to “review honor code violations in order to promote a culture of honesty and integrity”.
The process a student would go through if he or she was to be found violating the honor code by plagiarism, cheating or using their phone during a test, would be a series of steps. First, the student would have to fill out a referral, with the students’ statement of what happened and the teachers’ statement of what happened. This referral would then be sent to the honor council, where there are an odd number of students and teachers. The honor council representatives would not know who the student is, and they would decide whether it is a violation of the honor code. If the student is in violation, then the violation would be in the schools database, however, colleges would not see this on the transcript. The violation may change a student’s grade in the class that they were caught cheating in, however. If a student would like to be a part of the honor council, they can find the information in January.
There are no requirements to become part of the honor council, except they need to be an honorable student. The honor council is trying to make it better with a school wide impact on students. There are subcommittees that have different jobs. For example, there is a training committee, awareness committee, student faculty committee, and what’s new this year, the stress relief committee. “Stress is a big reason why students cheat, because there is so much pressure on the student, and if they don’t feel like they will do well on an assessment, they will want to cheat.” Moens said. All these steps taken by the honor council are to make students feel they are being treated righteously when they are accused of violating the honor code.
