Ethical delimma - advise needed

Momwaitingfornew
Fri, 19 May 2006 08:33:49 +0000

I am appalled that this happened - and that it was allowed to happen.

I knew lots of cheaters in HS, and none of them amounted to much, but none of them got into top schools, either. They cheated because they didn’t want to do the work, not because they wanted to get all As. This seems like a blatant case of grades-for-grades sake.

This case also explains why so many colleges have strict honor codes that not only obligate students to be honest but also to turn others in. I know that at my alma mater, I could have been brought before the disciplinary committee for not reporting cheating. Ignoring cheating was as bad as cheating itself. I never faced this dilemma, however, because I never knew anyone who cheated in college.

I really don’t have any advice for you. In a perfect world, you would report the cheaters, punishments would be meted, and the incident would be behind you. However, our culture looks down on snitches more than it does on cheaters - go figure. With only three of you in the room, it would be pretty easy to narrow down who the snitch was. Maybe you should talk with the other honest student?

After you graduate, I suggest writing a letter to the principal and your guidance counselor saying that having a sub proctor allowed some testing irregularities that you chose not to report. Urge them to take better precautions in the future so that this kind of situation doesn’t put other students in a difficult position and so that it doesn’t reflect badly on the HS itself. (I suspect that the HS can also get in trouble for allowing one students to take the exam for another.)

Also in a perfect universe, the test-taker blew the AP. :-)