Punishment Is Now Incremental: New Cheating Policy
According to a 2011 survey conducted by the Josephson Institute of Ethics of 43,000 U.S. high school students, more than half admitted to having cheated during the 2010 school year. However, at Peninsula, only 18 cases of forgeries and cheating were reported in the 2014-2015 school year, out of a student body of over 2,500 individuals.
Does this mean, then, that Peninsula students stand out as a “pillar of integrity” when it comes to cheating? Not necessarily, according to teachers schoolwide.
“Statistically, I could walk away and say that there isn’t a cheating problem,” Principal Mitzi Cress said. “But every time I have a forum with kids, or a summit with teachers, it’s always about cheating, that we have a terrible problem with cheating at this school.”
As a result of this, a new cheating policy has been developed and adopted for the new school year. Created by a committee of 12 teachers at Peninsula, the policy is loosely based on those from local high schools and colleges.
The policy assigns dishonest behaviors and appropriate penalties to a point-infraction system, in which more serious offenses inflict more points on the Student Infraction Record. Points imposed for a single incident range from one to four, with relative consequences for each incident. As more points are acquired, consequences increase in severity – from a zero on an assignment to being dropped from a class, and, in the most severe cases, suspension, arrest or expulsion.
In contrast, the system currently used by the other high schools in Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District (PVPUSD), and by Peninsula until this year, allows students two instances of cheating throughout their high school career – whether minor or major, no distinction is made – before expulsion from a class with a failed grade.
“I came to realize that teachers didn’t want to ruin kids’ lives,” said Cress. “That was why so few cases of cheating had been reported. But I think this [new policy] will work because it’s right for kids, and it’s a teaching moment, rather than this draconian ‘you are a bad person and I’m going to ruin your life’ notion from the old system.”
The philosophy behind the new policy is that once a student errs and receives an infraction point, the student can learn from his experience and move on, without receiving heavy consequences for what may have been a minor mistake. Furthermore, teachers are more enabled to report all instances of cheating to school authorities, as they will not have to worry about their disciplinary action drastically impacting a student’s future, and will be able to allocate penalty where it is due.
“I’m very optimistic about the program,” Associate Principal Michael Wanmer, Head of Discipline, said. “I hope students are getting the message that cheating in high school is very serious, but cheating in college means you can be kicked out of the school and cheating in the real world can lead to jail time. I hope we can teach them that here, before it gets too serious – that cheating is just not worth it.”
