The Senior and the Substitute
Moral Dilemma #4: A Wrinkle
Introduction:
Now we’d like to complicate Catherine’s dilemma just a bit more by telling you what happened next…
THE WRINKLE
Catherine decides that she can’t in good conscience let the transcript go out with false information and that the best course of action is to confront Rich with the issue. She believes the best course of action is to use her recommendation to explain Michaela’s significant drop in GPA during her junior year.
The next morning the principal makes a special announcement throughout the school that Michaela had been awarded the scholarship. It turns out that Catherine’s recommendation was going to be the last of four Michaela needed and the three earlier ones (along with the altered transcript) had been sufficient for the scholarship committee to overwhelmingly choose her.
She immediately went to Rich’s office and confronted him in private. To her surprise Rich admitted that he altered Michaela’s transcript.
“Look,” he says “I’ve been working at this school for 15 years and witnessed thousands of students whose opportunities after they graduate will be severely limited either because of their race or their economic background or some combination of the two.”
His voice seemed to contain no anger just a sense of exhaustion at having to face down the sad inevitability of the extraordinary difficulties many of the students at their school will face.
“The vast majority of our kids come from poor neighborhoods where the public schools are so bad and family life is so deeply fractured that they’re lucky if they’ve learned how to read and write at a 3rd grade level once they arrive here” he told her.
What’s The Right Thing To Do?
Time for you to decide again. What’s the right thing for Catherine to do now?
- Bring the matter up to the principal and let him decide?
- Contact the scholarship committee and explain the situation with the argument that Michaela deserves the scholarship but that the record needs to be set straight.
- Tell Michaela that she is proud of her but that she hadn’t even gotten the chance to submit her recommendation yet?
- Say nothing and leave the situation alone.
- Say nothing but anonymously report Rich’s behavior to the Board of Education after the school year is done?
None of these sound right to you? Want to qualify one of the above answers? What do you think Catherine should do now?
“Michaela is a very bright and capable girl who has had to go through an extraordinary amount of tragedy in her life. She’s one of the best students to ever pass through here. This scholarship is about so much more than simply a free education, it will literally put her life on a completely different trajectory potentially breaking the cycle of poverty that so many of our students are forced to repeat. If her mother hadn’t died her scores would’ve looked very much like the changed transcript. I feel the changes I made are a much more truthful representation of who Michaela is and what she is capable of. This is an exceptional case and I stand by what I’ve done.”
Catherine understood his point but told him she thought it would be best if she consulted the school principal about the issue.
“Fine. Do what you have to.” Rich said with a note of exasperation creeping into his voice. “But I think you’ll be doing a lot more damage than you know.”
Catherine left his office and walked back to the faculty lounge. She realized that what she decided to do could potentially cost both Rich his job and Michaela’s scholarship chances. While she is walking down the hall Michaela comes up to Catherine with tears in her eyes and thanks her for all of her help.
Time for you to decide again. What’s the right thing for Catherine to do now?
Check back later this week for our moral theologian’s analysis of the both the dilemma and our readers’ responses.
Please note that the editorial staff reserves the right to not post comments it deems to be inappropriate and/or malicious in nature, as well as edit comments for length, clarity and fairness.