High School Cheating: Flunking Responsibility 101?
A cheating scandal involving the graduating class of an Ohio high school has many people arguing over who really flunked Responsibility 101.
According to school officials at Centerburg High, a senior hacked into teachers’ computers and shared stolen tests with perhaps half of the other 90+ seniors. Authorities said that even students who didn’t use the test had “cheated” because they knew of the scam, but failed to report it.
When the Centerburg School Board learned of the situation just days before graduation, it abruptly cancelled the ceremony for the entire senior class. It was impossible “to separate the wheat from the chaff,” declared the school superintendent, so collective punishment was necessary.
“I am alarmed that our kids can think that in society it’s OK to cheat, it’s a big prank, it’s OK to turn away and not be a whistle-blower, not come forth,” the superintendent said, adding that seniors would receive their diplomas through the mail.
“We worked 13 years to get to this point,” said one upset would-be graduate. “This isn’t the way we should be remembering the end of our senior year.”
Opinions on message boards were divided. “I don’t think the kids who knew and didn’t report should be punished,” one person wrote. “They are not the school’s police and it wasn’t their job to act like police.”
Others thought the school wasn’t harsh enough. “Should make them redo the senior year,” one wrote. “They go on to cheat in college, cheat on their spouses, and then in the work force.” And still another insisted, “The school should be named Bernie Madoff High School.”
But the citizens of Centerburg disagreed. Angry parents improvised a graduation ceremony in a local park, and all along Main Street people stopped to cheer the Class of 2009, as 93 seniors in crimson robes filed past, smiling.
Tell us what you think: Was collective punishment appropriate or not? Did students who knew about the scam without taking part have a responsibility to turn in their classmates? What responsibility does the school administration bear?
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Comments
The school had better improve security. Were criminal charges filed? All tests that were compromised should have been redone and all who took those original tests should have taken the new tests. Those who would have passed the original test without cheating would also pass the new test.
Canceling the ceremony was not something I would have done.
Vix | 8 months ago
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Cheating
The students should have been retested and their parents too. It is sad that no one reported this to school or to parents. It reflects on the relationship of students to parents and on the school system. People do not connect cheating with stealing. When one cheats, they are stealing from someone else.
Lawrence Marioneaux | 8 months ago
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Very common
Cheating is much more widespread than people think. Parents put so much pressure on their kids that cheating seems like the only way to keep them happy. I’ll admit, as a recent high school graduate, I cheated in high school more than a few times. It comes down to do I cheat and have my parents tell me how happy they are or do I stay honest a face a lecture about how I could be doing better. I can also say most of the people with a high grade point average at my school cheated on a regular basis.
Sam Nixdorf | 8 months ago
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Education Chair, NAACP Reno-Sparks, NV
As a former high school principal, I am in disagreement with the way this matter was handled. It would have been very easy to have the students re-take a revised version of the test vs. canceling their graduation—-a meaningful milestone for the students. The individuals responsible for hacking into the computer system should not have been allowed to participate in the graduation program.
A school counselor or someone with great integrity, whom the students hold in high esteem, could have used this as a teachable moment for the students who took advantage of the hackers’ work. I wonder if the principal or superintendent would have made the same decision if his/her child was a potential graduate of this class???
Dr. Debra Feemster | 7 months, 4 weeks ago
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operations manager
Parents and educators of today seem to believe in this Generation“Y” thing, Its’ OK not to take responsibility for their errors in judgment. Just pat the kids on the back and say, let’s hit the re-start button and do over, just like a computer game. The real, non-PC, world isn’t like that. If the parents of the kids want to go outside the school and have some sort of graduation, fine, school official did the right thing. I wonder what sort of punishment these parents dished out to their kids, I would bet many kind of smiled and patted their kid on the back saying..“I like the way you think”
greg haugens | 7 months, 3 weeks ago
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Usenext Free
Sometimes it’s really that simple, isn’t it? I feel a little stupid for not thinking of this myself/earlier, though.
Crack | 7 months, 2 weeks ago
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no
i do not angthing. i am a foreigner.
diguozhu | 7 months, 1 week ago
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thrivellearning550 | 5 months, 3 weeks ago
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evil
i think she is an evil person and a very rude person i have never met anyone so rude
Zack Chugg | 4 months, 4 weeks ago
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