The Dangers of Teaching, Part 6: Conniving Students

Last night, I handed back papers. This student who I had rarely saw asked where her paper was. What students don't realize is that this is a red flag. While theoretically, a professor might lose a paper, this has never happened to me or anyone else that I know of. I could see losing a whole stack of papers but not one. Chances are remote that will ever happen.

I, wanting to get rid of her until I could check my gradebook and office, told her to e-mail me later. She does and wonders "what we can do about this." Of course, she hadn't turned in her first paper either. Obviously, she is lying.

What I should do is make a check mark the evening that I get the papers so I don't have to deal with this. But I don't. So I guess I have to let her turn in another copy. I told her she could turn it in on Thursday but I also gave her a stern message that since she didn't turn in the first paper, she should drop the class.

What do you think the chances are that she actually has the paper to turn into me on Thursday? 50%?