Articles labeled: cheating

If schools are looking to send a message to students that cheat or steal, they may be successful:

The parents of nine high school students accused of breaking into Hanover High School in New Hampshire are furious that school officials turned the case over to local police. The police prosecutor brought criminal charges against the students who allegedly broke into a teacher’s filing cabinet and stole exams. Their parents are now being told that if they choose to take the case to trial, misdemeanor charges could be raised to felonies.

What is truly offensive is the authors willingness to hang these kids out to dry as a lesson to be learned for the entire world:

As the mother of two teenagers, I agree. But it is also scary to hear a parent equate an allegation of breaking and entering as “one little mistake.” This is, at minimum, a very big mistake.

Today, cheating is routinely dismissed as no big deal. A stadium filled with New England Patriots fans sent that message to Coach Bill Belichick after he was fined $500,000 for illegally filming the signals of New York Jets coaches in the season opener.

So, according the author, we should ruin the lives of stupid teenagers because professional athletes cheat? I think the author’s comparison is midguided. Kids do stupid things. Are teenagers supposed to be sacrificed for the good of moral servitude?

I’m not suggesting that these punk teens get away with what they did. Stealing is a crime. They should face consequences, but if they have no prior convictions, they should be scared straight but not ruined with prison terms.

People get away with murder in this country, literally, they get away with murder and child abuse and yet we want to ruin these kids lives for being really, really stupid. Well, I’ve got news for you, teenagers ARE stupid. They do really stupid things. They should be taught a lesson, not ruined. The weight of the worlds wrong doings should not lie on their shoulders. Let’s do the right thing here, but not make these kids scapegoats. This isn’t the land of the Taliban after all. The punishment should fit the crime.