The recent incidents of cheating at Central have many wondering what it is that motivates students who choose dishonesty over academic integrity.
One student, who wishes to remain anonymous and who received a five-day suspension for cheating, said it’s all about laziness.
“Even though I cheated, I could have done it on my own,” said the student. “People may doubt me, but I know that I’m really intelligent… the real fact is that I’m lazy.”
For this student, as is true for many others who are academically dishonest, phone communication was the vehicle used to cheat on tests and other summative assignments.
“I had pictures of a couple of […] scantrons on my phone and sent them to my friends who were in the next period,” said the student. “I also had a picture of the entire test and sent it to my friend who was absent that day of the test. In another class, I sent pictures of a […] test to my friend who would then complete them and send me pictures of the answers back. I would also receive some answers from other students. For example, […] my friend sent me the vocabulary words on the quiz.”
According to this student, however, cheating as extensive as his is not a rare occurrence. Although the administration has suspended at least six students in the last two weeks for cheating, in this senior’s personal opinion, they have only hit the tip of the iceberg.
“The main thing involved like seven or eight kids but honestly the network expands to a bunch of people,” said the student. “If they wanted, the administration could possibly catch up to over 50 people. I am telling you, over 50 percent of the senior class is cheating.”
After serving his suspension and receiving both disciplinary and academic consequences as determined by deans, teachers and administrators, this student said he sees the fault of his ways.
“I do deserve this punishment, there is no doubt,” the student said.
Having reformed his own views on academic integrity, he now has a message for his peers.
“To the cheaters in school, I am telling you that it is a drug,” said the student. “Just do your own work and you will feel better about yourselves… Trust me, karma is a bitch.”