Chapter 938
The sight of the group strutting into the control room made the security guy inside jump up from his seat.
“W–What‘s going on, Mr. Brown?”
Why would so many lecturers be here if it wasn‘t something major?
The thought of that had him all tensed up.
“Relax. It‘s not that big of a deal. We just want to review the security footage to ascertain some facts, that‘s all.”
“The security footage…” answered the security guard between stutters. “But the school‘s surveillance system underwent an upgrading these past few days. I’m afraid a review won‘t be possible as we don‘t have the footage from last week anymore.”
“What? A systems upgrade?” Donovan‘s inflection raised a notch.
This matter also slipped Marcus‘ mind until he had been reminded of it just then.
“It would seem that we‘ve hit a dead–end,” Marcus said. “In that case, you can all have her resit the papers after the charity event has concluded.”
“How could that do?” Donovan protested. “Having already done them once, with a good memory, it would not be difficult for her to ace the papers again. I‘d say that Arielle must have known about the upgrading
works for the surveillance system during this period and had thus taken the opportunity to cheat, so why don’t you just expel her outright…”
“No way!” replied Marcus, cutting him off. “There‘s no way that I’d expel any student on a whim, especially given the lack of proof. What would people think of Jadeborough University if we handle things so irresponsibly?”
Arthur nodded profusely as he concurred. “In my esteem, Arielle was not guilty of cheating, to begin with. Didn’t you also help with the invigilation yourself during the exams back then, Mr. Brown? With two lecturers supervising the examination proceedings, even cheating just a little couldn‘t possibly lead to full marks.”
Marcus‘ eyes suddenly lit up. “Speaking of the invigilation, it actually reminded me of something. Didn‘t you say that the paper for advanced mathematics was exceedingly difficult? I didn’t get the sense that Arielle felt that way when I watched her work on it. That goes to show that she was indeed quite gifted.”
“No,” Donovan dismissed it flatly. “That actually proved that she did cheat. For something that challenging, even I could not have scored maximum points in my first attempt. Unless you mean to suggest that a student could be more learned than a teacher like me? Something‘s definitely off about this!”
That drew a taut frown from Marcus. “Then, what do you suggest should be done? We can‘t review the
footage now, and I cannot approve of an immediate expulsion either.”
Donovan‘s chin perked up slightly. “At the charity event tonight, I shall issue an apology to Arielle for the two prior incidents. However, we must have a resolution pertaining to the matter of cheating at hand.”
“Perhaps you should go ahead and share your thoughts about it.”
Donovan took in a deep drawl. “I‘ve decided that I‘d publicly question Arielle in full witness of everyone present at the charity event.”
“Question her?” Arthur asked in skepticism. “Whatever do you mean to say by that?”
“It‘s quite elementary. In order to increase the level of difficulty of the papers, I had purposefully added some content related to quantum mechanics when I was formulating the examination questions. The fact that Arielle was able to score full marks meant that she understood quantum mechanics. Hence, I shall pose to her two questions related to the subject matter. If she‘s able to furnish the correct answers to them, that would be proof that she, indeed, had not committed fraud.”
Arthur frowned in disapproval. “But that‘d become obvious to both the students and their parents that we‘re suspecting her of cheating.”
“Hehe,” Donovan laughed. “Aren‘t you positive that she did not, Professor Sleight, so why are you so worried
now? If you didn‘t have your own suspicions, you needn‘t be at all concerned for her. Besides, she would be vindicated if she‘s able to answer.”
