<p>So this guy took the test, and then sent HIS answers to other people who were taking the test at the same time?</p>
<p>Weird, isn’t it?</p>
<p>As I said, he is apparently a photographer in extracurriculars …</p>
<p>In our high school Regent’s exams counted as a fifth marking period so if you aced them it could conceivably improve a class room grade quite a bit. It could make the difference between being val or sal or not easily. </p>
<p>I assume this guy must think he’s acing the exam and others who are less confident were accepting his answers as gospel.</p>
<p>I have no problem at all with cheaters getting severely punished. The fact that others haven’t gotten caught is irrelevant.</p>
<p>My first reaction was why anyone from Stuyvesant would even feel the need to cheat on a Regents exam - these tests wouldn’t be difficult for Stuyvesant kids. Obviously this doesn’t excuse the cheating.</p>
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I’d be surprised if this is the case at Stuyvesant, but who knows?</p>
<p>The articles all say that he was caught with his phone out and pictures of the tests with answers were found on the phone. What it does not specify is when the pics were taken. There is possibility that he gained access to the tests prior to test day, and distributed the tests with the answers before the tests started. I have no idea if this is true, but one more thing to consider. Until we have more details.</p>
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<p>Cheating or committing a criminal type act are some of the few grounds where Stuy or the other specialized high schools could expel someone. What he did was extremely serious and he should be punished accordingly along with anyone else who was found to be willing participants. </p>
<p>As an alum, I have no sympathy for him and unless the rules have been greatly relaxed since my time there, his expulsion will be permanent. You don’t cheat this brazenly, get caught by the principal himself, anger the Education bigwigs, and expect a second chance. </p>
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<p>Unless things have changed since I attended, Regents results didn’t matter beyond a possible chance at a Regents Scholarship that even then…was an effective dead letter considering it ran out of funds so often that some older classmates on that scholarship would actually receive checks for $0.00…</p>
<p>In short, they were treated somewhere between a tediously chore to be endured and a joke…especially by anyone in the top 70% or so of the class. </p>
<p>Regents results didn’t affect GPAs and thus, chances of being Val/Sal.</p>
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<p>Part of the problem is that the Chancellor’s Regs specifically states:</p>
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<p>The rule is not enforced because many administrators feel that as long as they don’t see it, they will not take it. Using cell phones for cheating has been going on for as long as students have had cell phones. The protocol is that the cheating must be reported to the state, there is no grade on the exam, and disciplinary action is taken on the student. Cobrat is correct in the fact that Stuyvesant does not have to keep the student. While yes, he does have a right to an education in NYC day high school, it does not have to be at stuyvesant. The worse case scenario, he will go to his local school. It could be worse, under the current discipline code the student could get a one year suspension.</p>
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<p>The previous poster’s comment may not be about downplaying or defending the cheating, but more along the lines of, “why would someone at that school think that they needed to cheat on this particular test that students there consider very easy?”</p>
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<p>Wonder how much of that was the result of parental backlash against Mayor Bloomberg’s attempt to completely ban cell phones for students some years back to prevent disruptions like this from happening in the first place. </p>
<p>Boggles my mind how parents of current K-12 kids don’t seem to get how being in touch 24/7 is not only not always necessary, but quite disruptive…especially among the elementary/middle school set. </p>
<p>Heck, if even undergrads/their parents don’t seem to realize that it isn’t a good idea to call/answer cell phone calls/text in lecture/classes as TA friends at various respectable/elite universities experienced…how do they expect K-12 kids to behave themselves in this regard. I’ve also wondered why it seems so hard for so many undergrads/students to simply turn their cell phones off for the duration of lecture and turn them on again when it’s time to leave. </p>
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<p>The last is still more generous than what some colleges…especially ones with honor codes like my LAC can do. Though it is rare…the bylaws of my LAC when I attended do allow for permanent expulsion of cheaters on the first offense if the nature of the cheating was judged egregious enough by the J-board.</p>
<p>Cheating is disgusting and it’s even more disgusting that some kids and adults have developed a somewhat blase attitude. If the consequence for cheating is expulsion then expelled this young man should be. The other 50 kids that “received” the supposed information is less cut and dried without knowing the circumstances of how or why they ended up on the e-mail list. It should not matter if the Regents is difficult or super easy that has nothing to do with cheating or not cheating.</p>
<p>"I am certainly not belittling cheating, I’m just saying it’s rampant throughout the state and to charge one kid is so very wrong. "</p>
<p>So what?! You could say this about almost any crime. I say severly punish the kid and others like him who are caught red handed. It is so very right to do so. </p>
<p>If the school didnt do so, it will likely just further exacerbate the problem and cause others to cheat more and/or take more risks because they know the punishment is small due to a bunch of parents convincing the educators of your above statement. </p>
<p>Especially since this school appears to have alot of students who are sympatheic and/or a long history of cheating. The punishment should be even more severe to wake these kids up and put a stop to it. Expulsion should be automatic. It would be good for him, the other students, and the school. </p>
<p>Its hard for me to understand how people are sympathizing with a blatant (and not very subtle) cheater.</p>
<p>My point about the easiness of the test is just that I find it hard to understand why 50 students at Stuyvesant would have a motive to cheat on that test. If it’s like the MSA in Maryland, smart kids don’t prepare for it at all.</p>
<p>Simply the fact that kids are trying to get the cheater reinstated tells me that the kids have no comprehension how very wrong cheating is. Such a sad statement. Almost like saying cheating is only wrong or bad if you get caught at it.</p>
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<p>I’m actually more shocked that a supposed employer of the cheater is saying to “give him a second chance” and that “kids are kids”. </p>
<p>If that person actually was an employer who hired him…it seems the lack of integrity/values extends well-beyond Stuy’s walls.</p>
<p>A CBS update at 12:25:</p>
<p>[Students</a> Return To Class After News Of Alleged Cheating Scandal At Stuyvesant High School CBS New York](<a href=“http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/06/26/students-return-to-class-after-news-of-alleged-cheating-scandal-at-stuyvesant-high-school/]Students”>DOE Investigating Alleged Cheating Scandal At Stuyvesant High School - CBS New York)</p>
<p>But nothing that wasn’t in the New York Post article this morning, as far as I can tell.</p>
<p>So far, no mention of the fact that if all the Regents Exams were given at the same time, this cheating scheme would require the fifty-some participants to turn on their smuggled cell phones during the same testing session. Pretty risky scheme! (By the way, if the photographs the kid took only capture the test, not his answers, that would have been pointless for cheating, too – the other students have the test right in front of them.)</p>
<p>And all this for a test that most Stuyvesant kids don’t really need to study to pass, which is all they need to do.</p>
<p>Also, knowing how competitive Stuyvesant kids are, it is strange that 250 supporters can be rounded up on cheating. Some of them may cheat, but they sure as hell wouldn’t want others to get away with it!</p>
<p>On the other hand, neither the principal, who apparently caught the kid himself, and Dennis Walcott, the chancellor who is reportedly furious, are idiots.</p>
<p>It’s all very odd.</p>
<p>To non-New Yorkers – the Regent exams are different from the Maryland and Virginia tests (based on what I quickly searched for on the Internet), and frankly, I’ve never heard of another state who has anything like them. They are subject based – they are not general tests for English and math proficiency. There’s chemistry, physics, US history, geometry, algebra, etc. Used to be foreign language ones, too. When I was in high school, the regents were our final exam in the course, and some final grades included the regents score. I remember studying long and hard for them. I was an honors student, and I don’t remember thinking they were easy or that I didn’t have to study for them.</p>
<p>Cheating on the Regents has a long history. I’ll never forget when the tests were stolen back in 1974, and my biology, math and chemistry was cancelled – boy, was I happy. 9 of 12 exams were cancelled then. Happened again in 1989, when the Post printed the (stolen) answer key to the chemistry regent.</p>
<p>The article says he took pictures of the “answers”! Where did he get the answers? Were they HIS answers? Had someone (a teacher) given him the answer key as part of a larger scheme? As above, it doesn’t make much sense to send pictures of the questions to students taking the test at exactly the same time.</p>
<p>Inquiring stuy grad mind wanting to know…</p>
<p>Click the “Test Scores” tab in </p>
<p>[Stuyvesant</a> High School, New York NY School Profile, Ranking, and Reviews - SchoolDigger.com](<a href=“http://www.schooldigger.com/go/NY/schools/0007702877/school.aspx]Stuyvesant”>http://www.schooldigger.com/go/NY/schools/0007702877/school.aspx)</p>
<p>Regents definitely not a big deal for Stuyvesant students (Okay, assuming most of them did not cheat).</p>
<p>I’m not sure how many high school kids with extracurricular activities could handle things without a cell phone; particularly students who don’t drive and don’t live in walking distance. When D was in high school there were at least three instances when school was canceled during the school day (loss of power, major blizzards) and one security lockdown situation. Pay phones are few and far between, and usually not working. Several thousand kids coming in to try and use a phone in the office? Not happening. </p>
<p>Teachers regularly (and appropriately) confiscated cell phones when students were caught using them in class, but I see no reason why they should be prohibited for out-of-class use.</p>