Cheating in High School

It is a common knowledge that high school students cheat. Every teacher gives lectures on the topic several times throughout the year, beginning with the warning on their class syllabus that is passed to everyone on the first day of school. With it includes the consequences that follow, which are generally the same for every class. Many students cheat, but the students who cheat the most are the ones who are in Advanced Placement or Honors classes. There was an incident in a local high school where 70 of the 90 students in the AP Biology class were caught cheating through a private internet group on Facebook. It was really disappointing for the school to find out that the many of the top students in the school participated in this cheating activity. Of course, several kids were dropped out of NHS, zeros were given on assignments that students cheated on, and students cried and begged for the incident to be removed from their record. The counselors and teachers gave the same advice was given to all of the participants, “Don't take the class if you can’t handle it.” As much as that is true, the school staff is clearly detached and completely ignorant of the position of these students. They do not understand how difficult it is for students to get into a good school, and how tough competition is. What was enough to score you an acceptance to a top school several years ago isn’t sufficient enough to get these students into what are labeled as “good schools” anymore. It seems as though it is impossible to even be ranked in the top ten percent in your class unless you take five or more AP classes, and have a cumulative GPA of 4.5 and above. The amounts of stress students are under lead them to degrade themselves into such actions. I am sure this is not the only high school where students cheat to get better grades. Sadly, year-by-year, competition for high school students are only getting tougher, which means this trend will keep continuing.