<p>I think both the school and the parents have failed these kids. First, where was the lesson in ethical behavior, and why was it not instilled long before high school? </p>
<p>If parents have not ingrained in their children a sense of right and wrong, then, unfortunately, the school must either teach the lesson,or provide enough punishment for transgressions so the kids learn it is not a worthwhile.</p>
<p>The school was too slow and ineffective to catch the cheating early, and so now, under public scrutiny, punishes all the seniors with a huge public chastisement. </p>
<p>Let this be a lesson to schools (and parents)–encourage honesty, provide a discrete line of communication for those who want to report cheating, punish cheaters early and quickly before the stakes are high (isn’t this part of educating?).</p>
<p>Sometimes it just comes down to poor IT security. You want to know a kicker?</p>
<p>Staff room computer network is set up on the same network as the computer lab PCs - which the students have access to. One day, a bunch of students were messing around on the school computer labs when they discovered they could access shared folders on the teachers’ work laptops. One teacher had that year’s preliminary exam papers in a shared folder on her computer.</p>
<p>In this instance, the students didn’t cheat. But why make it so easy?</p>
<p>Irony: just two years before this happened, the school banned students from entering the staff room when (hearsay) a student was discovered snooping around for exam papers.</p>
<p>Agree with everyone. This year for the first year my soon to be senior’s school starting “dealing” with the rampant cheating in many ways. And yes, my kids know darn well who cheats and who doesn’t and it is definitely happens with some of the “top students.” It is poetic justice because it all plays out when they go off to college so I haven’t tended to get too riled up when my kids talk to me about it. I was very happy that the school is finally addressing this as I suspect they have “known” for several years. How else do you produce A students who get lower scores on their ACT? My kids won’t even consider NHS at (our) school because they think that particular organization is a hot bed of cheaters at (our) school. You apply for NHS at our school and I checked the bios of the distinquished graduating scholars and lo and behold the really, really good students are not in NHS. Interesting. The only case of a cheater I know so I cannot make generalizations, was the son of a friend. His mom, my friend, would aboslutely blow a gasket if her kids didn’t get straight As. She had them on ADD meds and the whole nine yards. Really really nice kids but aboslutely in reality were solid B kids who both got 21s on their ACTs…but they got As - guess how they got As. The pressure on them was really intense, but they are doing well at the regional universisty and I’m happy for them to have that pressure gone. It would be interesting to know if cheating is more rampant at the “better districts.” Ours sends over 80% on to college.</p>
<p>So far, all of the cheating scandals I’ve seen have involved AP kids at better districts. These kids have the most pressure on them to succeed and more to lose in the college derby with bad grades. Plus they are usually smart and determined enough to figure out how to beat the computer systems.</p>
<p>That’s what I think too. What a change from when we were in high school Back then only the kids really struggling with grades cheated. My kids tell me it’s not them, it’s the “smarter” kids. They have told me of some quite ingenious methods. So I suspect ellemenope is correct. It’s interesting because this summer I unearthed a box that had all my high school report cards in it. I graduated 2nd. And I had a few Bs here and there. I didn’t remember the Bs LOL…how conveniently we forget. Coming from the loins of a teacher mom, I told my kids I’d take a B without cheating over an A with cheating so if they ever felt the need to cheat to think about that. I really don’t think they do or if they do they don’t cheat “well.” I’d like to see the schools “get real” and crack down on that stuff. In the long run it’s better for all the kids and as my kids say “it just makes a mock” of all the honors and NHS.</p>
<p>I don’t see how we get kids to not cheat when parents are cheating as well. In our district, it is SOP for parents to try to get a diagnosis for their kids so they can get extra time on standardized tests and accommodations that will allow them to get the best grades. I’m not aware of any widespread cheating among students at D’s high school (not to say it doesn’t happen, just that I don’t know about it), but the behavior of some parents is not what I’d want my kids to model. </p>
<p>As for this particular high school, I don’t agree with their decision to cancel graduation. That’s not fair to the kids who didn’t cheat. Issue the diplomas conditionally and if some of them need to be revoked after an investigation, so be it. I also have mixed feelings about expecting kids to rat out their peers. I have a D who is very shy. She won’t go to a teacher who has graded something incorrectly and not in her favor to try to get it adjusted, even though it’s an obvious mistake and easily corrected. There’s no way on earth she’d go to a teacher to tell him/her other students were cheating. It would be great if all students were willing to blow the whistle on the cheaters, but it’s very difficult, especially at that age.</p>
<p>maybe they are cancelling in hopes of creating some cognitive dissonance where the kids who did not cheat wil apply pressure to those that did cheat. </p>
<p>Remember even those that did not cheat are upholding the cheaters by allowing them to get away with cheating and yes, through their silence, they are letting them get away with cheating. In a school this small, there are probably students who know who is behind the cheating. If they were to attend a school with an honor code, they would be subject to the same punishment as the cheaters. </p>
<p>When parents say that they are going to hold their own graduation, they are also saying that it is ok to let the cheaters get away with cheating, we’ll just circumvent the system and hold our own celebration where we will celebrate the cheaters. Then we wonder about the questionable ethics of the next generation. At the end of the day, there is no right way to do something that you know is wrong and evil prevails when good men do nothing.</p>
<p>I agree with what Sybbie is saying. My 17 year just wandered by and I asked him why the kids that don’t cheat don’t get upset about the ones that do and he said, “he didn’t care and it didn’t concern him.” I asked him if the kids that cheat might create downward pressure on grades that in turn affect him and he said “I haven’t thought about it that way, but I guess it doesn’t matter I learn what I learn regardless of the grade.” Hmmm. I think the parents planning their “own” ceremony are wrong, but I also fault the school for not getting on top of this issue when the teachers suspected something was wrong with the higher than expected grades.</p>
<p>I am glad that you asked your son this question. I am also glad that you pointed our while your son may not think it concerns him, it actually should concern him. While he may not see this directly, what bout when it comes to ranking, recommendations, scholarship and award opportunities that go through the school. He could end up being short changed and not even realize it.</p>
<p>Momofthreeboys, my 17 year old son feels the way yours does. My D, who is older, always felt a lot of self-induced pressure to be “the best” - she would have had a cow if students were cheating at her school (small Catholic prep school - none of the top kids cheated). I don’t know if she would have told, but she sure would have complained to me! S is more the “whatever” kind. He does his own thing & doesn’t care what anyone else does. I don’t see anything wrong with that.</p>
<p>A couple years ago while sub teaching at a high school, some of the teachers were complaining about the cheating among a handful of AP kids. I asked them why they didn’t flunk them if they found them cheating on a test. They said that their parents would complain & the administrators would make them pass the kids - so why bother? How sad (but probably true).</p>
<p>It is a quandry. If the teachers don’t deal with the kids who are cheating or they suspect cheating but don’t alter their routines, then they are also sending a message to the kids that “they don’t care.” I know that my kids are quite bothered by hypocrisy in some adults and they may interpret lack of effort to crack down on cheating as hypocritical. For example, my oldest worked at a local restaurant where one of the local policemen used to frequent the bar. He would drink (more than a few), leave the restaurant and hop in his car and drive home. It bothered my son so much and he used to always talk about how hypocritical it was that people whose job it is to enforce laws turn around and break laws. My kids like their teachers (and vice versa) but I can easily surmise they find it ironic that the teachers (who should be cracking down on this stuff) turn a blind eye. I think when a kid says they “don’t care” they might very well care, but it is there way of dealing with a situation they feel they have no ability to change.</p>
<p>I am no fan of cheating, but I’m also no fan of collective punishment. </p>
<p>Holding graduation, but withholding the actual diplomas and transcripts until further investigation clarifies the involvement of various students would seem to be a more measured course. The locally-reported story indicates that some number of the senior class were actually students at the local vocational campus and weren’t even in the same building, and some of the other students weren’t even enrolled in the class in question. I wonder what kind of message these kids will take away from the school board’s ill-considered action.</p>
<p>Unless the students had signed on to a policy that required them to report cheating – a la West Point’s – they were not obligated to make the report. I understand that the principal and school board are mad, but making decisions while you’re mad doesn’t necessarily lead to good decision-making.</p>
<p>arabrab is very correct…in my high school we did not have any requirement to report cheating if we saw it, though in many colleges, you are as culpable if you know its happening and do nothing (like Washington and Lee). Frankly, it was a poor idea to do just cancel graduation. I’m sure that there were some perhaps even many upstanding non-cheaters at the high school. Indeed, it says in the article that a student ended up reporting the cheating to the principal. It’s just laziness IMO.</p>
Our school caught one student illegally accessing the school computer system. He no longer attends our school, as he’s pursuing his high school degree through an online charter school. How appropriate!</p>