#31 Zero tolerance always cracked me up. Academic institutions are supposed to be a place that fosters creativity, an individuals progression in learning, a place that allows for the opinions and thoughts of others to be part of the learning process... and then we have crap like this where there is no discretion, there is no thought to circumstance... Whatever, it was just a note, but christ, that kid put alot of effort in to that test, maybe spent ALOT of time studying over night, enough to where his mother noticed and left a note for him to help him do better... and what does the teacher do? Pays no attention to any of this, plays it by the books entirely.. Absolutely silly. Zero tolerance just seems to clash with the culture of academia *entirely*.

So what? There are two opinions: 1) Don't allow ANYTHING so you act was right 2) Read the s**t before you do something like that.

#25 while you make a good point, that still doesn't excuse the fact that hit ripped up his test and THEN looked at the note. He wasn't cheating, if he was i would agree that ripping up the test (while extreme) is ok, but he wasn't. Sure, there are policy's that say "no paper" but regardless of that you should still look at the note before doing anything to the test. I hope this TA gets fired. I, like #17 would do what i could to get you fired if that happened to me.

what the hell??? why rip it??? take it away from him ok but rip it??? that was just mean... in a weird way you have too much power...

I hope the kid punched you in the face because what you did was wrong. You should of at least confirmed what you saw before doing anything.

You should probably go kill yourself, lol. I don't know what I'd do in that situation, I'd feel so damn bad. I mean it was a note from his mom telling him she believes in him. Harsh

Oh please, that wasn't an asshole move. That kid should be smart enough not to be whipping out a piece of paper in the middle of a test. Though maybe the TA should have read the note first...nevertheless most of you are a bunch of overreacting *******.

Power trip for sure. Next time take the note and read it first. One would think that a TA would have to take the note and show it to the teacher, and the teacher would have to rip up the note - if it was a cheat sheet/what not.

#47 Fair enough. I wasn't on the same frequency as you on the issue I guess. And to be honest, you can't be THAT harsh on the TA... accidents/bad decisions happen to all of us. No need to tell the TA to off his/herself ...

um, what the hell. what kind of person would do that anyway. especially if you're only the TA. ruuuuudeee.