When Komaketch was given a government scholarship at the University, the whole family celebrated. But now it has been 4 years since he started a three-year course and with how things had been going, he was sure he would fail the exams and spend a 5th year in the same course. So, he decided to do everything ‘hook and crook’ to leave the university.
For the first two papers, he managed to copy from his friend who kept exchanging answer sheets with him and writing on his behalf. Unfortunately for the next exam, his friend was given a different seat, so Komaketch wrote notes on his shirt, arms and even carried a phone to get ‘outside’ help. The lecturer caught him ‘mid-call’ and the police was called in. As we speak, Komaketch is still in the police cell, and he wants a way out without contacting his parents.
Is copying in exams a crime?
WHAT DOES THE LAW SAY?
There is a difference between a wrong thing and a crime.
Copying/cheating in school exams is an academic wrong. This is because it tells a false story about a person’s academic abilities. Difference schools have different rules about copying and cheating in exams. For example, if you copy someone’s work in your coursework and you do not say who they were and which work you copied from, it is an academic wrong called plagiarism.
However, this does not make it a crime. A crime is an act or failure to act that the law considers as wrong and has a punishment for. What this means is that if there is no punishment in the law for a wrongdoing then it is not a crime.
Therefore, a person caught copying in exams is not a criminal. Instead, this person should face school punishment such as expulsion or suspension, but the person should not be arrested and handed over to police. This is because when a person is arrested for doing something that is not a crime, then that person’s rights have been violated through false imprisonment and they can sue the person who started the legal process against them.
Source: BarefootLawyers
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