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Professor Larring decided to pass the midterms back at the beginning of Adam Gorrin’s two o’clock class, and then go over them in the class. And so it was that Adam knew by about five after two that he had gotten a B+ on his chemistry midterm, a grade that was bound to trigger a lecture from his father when the older Gorrin learned about it.
Adam looked through the returned exam to see if there was any mistake in totaling the points. There wasn’t. Any way you added it up, he was 6 points short of the A- line. Father didn’t much care about an A-. An A, any kind of A, was good enough to let him brag to his friends about his son being a “straight A” student at UCSD. A grade of B, however, would show that his son was a lazy and failing in his duty to his family and spending his school money “hanging out with losers.” Adam’s father had never gone to college, but he knew there were a lot of “social activities” on the campus that could tempt his son away from studying. This was why Adam had to live at home. His father was sure that, if he lived on campus, he would give in to temptation.
Desperately Adam looked through the exam for some grading error that could be used to argue for more points. There were 10 questions. He had not had time to finish question 8, and the TA had written a big red zero beside it. Somehow the way to do the problem seemed a lot clearer today than it had when he was taking the exam, and he carefully wrote in the rest of the answer. Then he took a red pen and added a one in front of the zero. Professor Larring finished reviewing the exam just as the class ended, and Adam was pleased to see that his new answer was essentially correct. Probably it was worth only 8 or 9 points, but that was more than the six he needed, and certainly more than zero.
After class, Adam came up to see Professor Larring. “I think there may have been an error totaling my points, professor,” he said. And he handed over the paper. “I’ll have a look,” said Professor Larring, “and I’ll get back to you about it next week.”
When he examined the paper back in his office, Professor Larring noticed that the red pen used to write the number one was different from the red pen used to write the zero. He also noticed that the second part of question 8 had been written with a pencil that was not quite as sharp as the pencil used for the first half. And he noticed that the answer was not one that would ever have received the full ten points. So Professor Larring turned Adam in to his college dean for cheating.
That was Thursday. When Adam got home from school the following Monday, his mother told him that his father had opened a letter, addressed to Adam from the dean. She looked troubled, gave him a quick hug, and retreated to the other end of the house. Adam hated the fact that his father opened his mail, and this particular piece of mail was probably going to be worse than all the report cards in the world coming at once. He was right. His father stood in silence and handed him the letter, which asked him to appear “to discuss allegations of a breach of academic integrity.”
“What is this all about, Adam?” his father asked.
“It’s nothing. I didn’t do anything bad,” Adam replied, trying to sound convincing.
“I don’t know who the hell this dean is, but I’m going with you,” said his father simply.
“Please don’t,” answered Adam, knowing it wouldn’t do any good. “Please let me handle this. It’s nothing. I didn’t do anything bad. It’ll be okay.”
“I didn’t ask you,” said the older Gorrin. “I told you. I’m going with you.”
When Adam and his father met the dean, Professor Larring’s case was laid out before them. It was pretty obvious what had happened. Adam had to choose between denying that he cheated when the denial was not really believable, and admitting that he cheated and dealing with his father. The choice was clear.
“I didn’t do it!” Adam lied. “Honest! It was just the way he gave it back to me. It can’t possibly be a different pen. I didn’t change anything! I didn’t cheat. I didn’t! I swear to God!”
“Well, then that means there will have to be a hearing,” the dean explained.
“But I didn’t do it!” Adam whimpered miserably.
The older Gorrin was surprisingly quiet through most of the interview. When it was time to leave, he spoke to the dean in a low, measured voice.
“Nobody goes around saying my boy cheated. Not you, and not that bastard professor. NOBODY, gets away with insulting the name of Gorrin. We are going to have the best attorney money can buy for that hearing. The very best!”
“They don’t allow attorneys in hearings of this kind,” replied the dean. He was about to say something else … maybe that they weren’t too enthusiastic about outraged fathers either, but the Older Gorrin cut him off.
“Then we’ll sue the school in court. And we’ll sue Larynx or whatever his name is for trying to drag the name of Gorrin in the mud. In fact, I’ll do better than that. I’ll hire a detective to follow Larynx around and see how much he’s cheating. We all know there isn’t a professor out there who doesn’t cheat on his wife and steal grant money and take bribes and God knows what else. And I bet he cheated plenty all through school. Whatever Larynx does, we’ll find it. Wait till they see that in the newspaper. Nobody tries to smear the name of Gorrin! Nobody!” Adam’s father turned and stalked down the hall.
Adam shuddered and felt terrible. His father may or may not have believed his stupid lie, and still didn’t know about the B+ that was the cause of it all. But now everything just seemed to be getting worse.
Adam knew that the evidence against him was strong, and that the chances of being judged innocent in a hearing were very poor. And he was afraid of what would happen if his father really tried to get lawyers mixed up in all this. Father was always loud. There was no way the school paper wouldn’t be there. And Campus Satires, the student “humor” magazine. Oh God, the Satires! As they drove back from seeing the dean, Adam tried to change the fate he seemed to be bringing on himself.
“Dad,” he said. “I am really ashamed of myself. But they are right. I did cheat, just the way Professor Larring said.”
His father looked shocked. “They have no right to accuse you of it. They have no right to drag the Gorrin name through the mud. And you have no right to let them do it.” There was a long silence. Suddenly his father pulled over to the side of the road.
“Get out!” he said. “And don’t come home.”