Students attending South Lakes High School are expected to conduct themselves honorably in pursuit of their education. Cheating, plagiarism, and fraud violate ethical codes of conduct and will not be accepted at South Lakes High School.  The South Lakes Honor Code conforms to FCPS Student Rights and Responsibilities and aligns to the expectations of the International Baccalaureate program.

Students will...

• Exercise academic honesty in all aspects of their work.
• Prepare sufficiently for all types of assessments.
• Seek extra help from teachers.
• Avoid engaging in cheating, plagiarizing, and lying.
• Use sources in the prescribed manner.
• Report any violations of the Honor Code.

Teachers will...

• Develop, model, and sustain ethical practices within the classroom setting.
• Report violations to counselors and administrators.
• Confer with those who violate the Honor Code.
• Contact student’s parent or guardian regarding a violation.
• Record a failing grade for the assignment.

Parents will...

• Discuss the Honor Code with their child to ensure understanding.
• Encourage their child to maintain high standards with regard to integrity, honesty, and personal responsibility.
• Support faculty and administration in enforcing the Honor Code.

Administrators will...

• Ensure that all faculty, students, and parents receive the Honor Code.
• Help contribute to a school-wide environment that encourages adherence to the Honor Code.
• Require teachers to enforce the Honor Code.
• Maintain accurate records of Honor Code violations.
• Ensure that the Honor Code is being applied consistently throughout the school.

The Honor Code expressly forbids the following academic violations:

Cheating
Examples of cheating include but are not limited to:

• Copying another person’s work.
• Allowing another person to copy your work.
• Using unauthorized notes, aids, or written material in any form during a test.
• Unauthorized use of technological devices (cell phones, cameras, ipods, games, etc) when taking an assessment.
• Copying from another person’s paper; giving or receiving information orally, or by signs, gestures, or deception during any type of assessment.
• Unauthorized use of intellectual property.

Plagiarism
Examples of plagiarism include but are not limited to:

• Presenting someone else’s work as your own including the copying of language, structure, programming, computer code, ideas, and/or thoughts of another without proper citation or acknowledgement.
• Copying word for word, without using quotation marks or giving credit to the source of the material.
• Failing to use proper documentation and bibliographies citations.
• Having somebody else do assignments which are then submitted as one’s own work.

Falsification/Lying
Examples of falsification/lying include but are not limited to:

• Making an untrue statement verbally or in writing with the intent to deceive.
• Creating false or misleading impressions.
• Forgery of official signatures.

1. What is the Honor Code?  At South Lakes High School, a student’s work is the student’s work.  The Honor Code is part of each student’s responsibilities and rights.  No work is discussed, borrowed, and/or copied without giving credit to the person with whom the student discussed the work, borrowed the work, and/or copied the work.
   
   Our Honor Code starts at the beginning of the school year with the review of the Students Responsibilities and Rights.  If the teacher sees a questionable violation of the honor code, the teacher is required to make a referral to the Honor Council.  The teacher discusses the questionable violation with the student, calls the student’s parents, fills out Section I of the referral form, and gives a copy of the referral form to the student to fill out Section Two and return the form within two school days. 
    
2. What is the difference between a referral and violation?  Referrals are questions about a possible violation.  Violation means that the honor and integrity of the Academic work was not kept.
    
3. How often does the Honor Council convene?  The Honor Council convenes as needed, usually once a month.
                         
4.  How are student cases heard?  Please review the SLHS Honor Code Referral form.  Students who check that they violated the Honor Code do not get forwarded to with the Honor Council.  Students who check that they did not violate the Honor Code are notified of the Councils findings in writing.
5. May parents come to the Honor Council meeting?  No, parents are not invited to attend or to talk at the Honor Council meeting.  If the student finds they must appeal the Honor Council decision, then parents, who frequently have a point of view or background information that they consider relevant, are welcome to append a statement to the appeal made to the Administrative Team.
6. Is the meeting transcribed or recorded, by the Council or by the student?  No.

7. Who knows about the referral?  The teacher or referring party, the student, the student’s parent/guardian, the Chair of the Honor Council and then whoever sits on the Council when the referral is heard.  No one else knows about the referral, unless the student shares the information.   Student names are redacted by the Chair prior to review.

8. What does the first violation do to my child’s school record?  If the referral becomes a violation, the student receives a 50% or the equivalent on a 4.0 grading scale, on the assignment with no retake opportunity. Students who are members of honor societies, SGA, and other academic leadership positions will be suspended from extracurricular participation with that organization for 30 days and placed on probationary status for one calendar year. While the first violation is kept in a confidential, secure location, an Honor Society Sponsor may request that the Chair of the Honor Council checks their membership lists for students with honor code violations.  All files are destroyed upon a child’s graduation from South Lakes High School.

9. What does the first violation do to my child’s applying for membership into Honor Societies?  The first violation precludes membership with the automatic one year probation from applying to Honor Societies.

10. What happens if a student receives a second or third violation? 

Second Offense:

Teacher and student complete the honor code referral form.

• Immediate referral to the student’s administrator.
• Conference including the student’s administrator, the teacher, the counselor, the parent, and the student.
• If a student is a member of an Honor Society, they will lose membership in that Honor Society.
• If a student holds office, they will be removed from office.
• Student will be assigned one day of In-school Suspension and incident recorded in the student’s discipline record.

Third Offense (and all subsequent offenses):

• The administrator will notify immediately the student’s parents and suspend the student from school for one day. Progressive discipline may be assigned as well.
• Conference including the student’s administrator, the teacher, the counselor, the parent, and the student. Consequences for any additional violations of the Honor Code will be discussed at that time.

11. Who notifies the various Honor Societies?  Ideally, the student does, if he/she is found to have violated the Honor Code.  The Chair of the Honor Council may also notify the Honor Society if a violation has been founded by the Council.

12. To whom should I address questions and concerns about the referral?  Address all questions and concerns to the Chair of the Honor Council. (Mr. Darius Robinson)

Honor Code Policy Presentation (pdf)