Raise the bar, adjust the attitude, make the expectations for
students
– and the consequences for cheating – crystal clear.
That’s the recipe for countering a disturbing trend at Gilroy
High School where cheating is tacitly accepted and openly
acknowledged as a part of daily campus life by the students.
Raise the bar, adjust the attitude, make the expectations for students – and the consequences for cheating – crystal clear.
That’s the recipe for countering a disturbing trend at Gilroy High School where cheating is tacitly accepted and openly acknowledged as a part of daily campus life by the students.
Is it earth-shaking news that students are using cell phones to text message answers and take pictures of tests, or write answers underneath short skirts? No. There will always be cheaters. But the impunity with which cheating is practiced at Gilroy High has allowed “the disease to spread,” and that is unhealthy for our students, our community and our society. These students are our future construction managers, stockbrokers, police officers and bank tellers. Integrity and character are important issues, and that is the message our school leaders must drive home to Gilroy High students and parents.
The current policy that deals with cheating is weak and unfair because it is not uniform. In heaping sole responsibility upon classroom teachers for cheating-related disciplinary action, the school community has severed itself from an important implied partnership. There should be a policy in place that is supported by the administration, the elected trustees, the staff and the students themselves. Trustee Tom Bundros is right on track with his call for a board policy that addresses cheating and plagiarism. That policy should be districtwide. Another policy, developed by the administration and students at Gilroy High, should be high school specific and brought to the board for approval and implementation.
Gilroy High students are not a bunch of “bad kids,” they are simply teen-agers who need clear directions, expectations and consequences for bad behavior.
Superintendent Edwin Diaz and Gilroy High Principal Bob Bravo have both expressed serious concern about the issue and pledged to seek appropriate remedies. An honest roundtable with students and faculty would be a good place to start.
At the outset, a goal should be to pass and implement a policy before the end of the school year. That would put Gilroy High on the right track for the future without having to wait for another class to pass through under the current rules.
Elements of the policy should include progressive discipline, an outline of specific steps that should be taken when cheating is suspected and acknowledgment of the cheating policy by both students and parents. That acknowledgment, combined with the clear school policy, should be sufficient to serve as an honor code, though it is important to talk to students about turning in others who they know are cheating. That is an honorable act that takes courage.
Beyond that, there are classroom testing procedures that should be discussed and perhaps tightened. Ideas like having an administrator or teacher’s aide assigned to randomly assist teachers in monitoring classrooms when tests are scheduled should be considered.
School officials have reacted professionally to an embarrassing public revelation. It is worth reminding everyone involved that the first step towards fixing a problem is acknowledging that the problem exists. Fixing it will improve Gilroy High and our community. “Gilroy Pride” is not something that should only be a slogan emblazoned on shirts for Mustang athletic teams, it should be a sense of coming from a place that cares about character and integrity. Our school leaders can show that’s the truth by tackling this problem head on with due speed and resolve.
