When someone else's "near future" depends on you

Bothered.


So today during INTFILO class, I started checking papers (theory-testing) for my Social Psychology class. I was almost halfway through the bunch when I encountered this "peculiar paper" with a "unique introduction". The parts were disjointed and and references were everywhere but they were not on the reference list. I immediately got the suspicion that there may be some parts directly copied from somewhere. I postponed the worrying part since I was about to go home.

When I got home and started checking papers again, I confirmed my suspicions through a simple google search. The whole statement was copied from a pdf file I found and to make it worse, the student used a different citation to cover up for the copy-pasted portion. I checked the name of the student and realized that the student was the same student who failed during the first theory-testing paper. I realized everything after that.

1. Putting another 0.0 mark on the second paper would mean that the student will automatically fail the class for the rest of the term regardless of the other in-class outputs since the theory-testing papers takes up 50% of their final grade.
2. Doing a third theory-testing paper will most probably be useless because even if the students succeeds in getting a 4.0, one 0.0 score will still be recorded.
3. Le mentor will most probably not tolerate this anymore. D:

I honestly want to save the student but...I cannot turn a blind eye on this one. It would mean going against every principle I have. Everything is up to me. The moment I put 0.0 on the final score box, the student will get delayed for about 2 terms due to the re-requisites of the subject and re-take the subject under the same prof with the same requirements.

I AM BOTHERED.

The mentor must be the one to make the decision. I just hope he's in good mood when I see him on Monday.