What value is there in cheating?

This past week, the Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce honored the best

and brightest of that town’s high school and college students and

student athletes during a morning award breakfast.

The accomplishments of these young hopefuls are stunning and

awe-inspiring and their futures are nothing short of brilliant. The

same can be said of the top achievers from Newport Harbor and Corona

del Mar high schools, honored just a few weeks ago by the Newport

Beach chamber.

Unfortunately, though, the polar opposite of these students

garnered headlines recently as authorities placed at least one

17-year-old under arrest on suspicion of cracking into the Corona del

Mar high computer system to change grades for as many as seven

students. There could be more arrests to come.

That one student, who faces felony charges and has been placed on

five-day suspension, must surely be asking now if it was all worth

it.

The refreshing thing is, all he had to do was ask his peers to

find out.

We were more than heartened to read some of the responses of those

at Corona del Mar high who had heard of the cheating scandal.

“It’s shocking,” freshman Amber Peck said. “Why don’t you just

study instead of changing your grades? And then you don’t have to

worry about being caught.”

“I think it was really stupid,” said another freshman, Jessika

Kelly. “Why don’t you just study for a test? If you cheat you won’t

learn anything. That’s why we go to school, [to learn].”

We couldn’t have said it any better.

Those who cheat the system do a double disservice. They hurt

themselves by failing to see right from wrong and by missing out on

what a high school education is all about.

And, they create an unfair playing field by attempting to reap the

rewards of hard work without doing it. How could they possibly expect

to receive the same grade as those who study and work long and hard

for their grades?

Those who cheat are only fooling themselves. It is not long before

they are discovered and when they are, often it results in a scarlet

letter that is almost impossible to remove. The world of business is

full of stories of careers ruined by cheating or unethical behavior.

The answer to the above question seems pretty clear. It most

certainly is not worth it to cheat.

But thankfully, as our award honorees and student peers prove, the

transgressions of a few do not outweigh the achievements of the many.