Cheating students draw suspensions, zeros

CHAPEL HILL -- Four students caught cheating on a social studies midterm exam received a zero on the test and were suspended, a punishment that typically lasts one to five days, a Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools spokeswoman said Tuesday.

The students used a master key to enter the school after hours and steal answers to the test, but the school and district have not pursued criminal charges, spokeswoman Stephanie Knott said.

When asked why, Knott said school officials have focused on the students' breach of academic integrity and not on pursuing trespassing or breaking and entering charges. The possibility of criminal charges remains, she said.

Knott held a news conference Tuesday afternoon, facing questions about the discovery that some students had a master key to the school and claimed that other students had used it to cheat in years past. Superintendent Neil Pedersen did not attend the news conference, and efforts to reach him Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Principal Jackie Ellis, who is leading the investigation, also did not attend the news conference. Efforts to reach Ellis on Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Ellis sent e-mail messages to parents Thursday night sharing that the school had discovered that some students were passing down the master key from year to year. She also wrote that a larger group of students knew about the key and kept silent.

At the news conference, Knott said only four students had been disciplined. She couldn't say why students and a teacher at the school said they thought as many as 20 to 30 students were involved.

Knott said she wasn't aware of the school trying to contact former students about the accusations of cheating in prior years.

"If students have graduated at this point, there's little probably that can be done about it," she said.

The school can't prove what students are saying had happened in the past, Knott said. Security cameras, which implicated the four students, were only recently installed, she said. And her own five-year review of grades at the school did not show any spike in test scores.

Other students and faculty have identified the disciplined students as seniors taking an advanced placement government course. Knott wouldn't corroborate that.

She said that if they were seniors, she didn't think school officials had discussed contacting the universities that may already have accepted them.

UNC-Chapel Hill obligates incoming freshmen to notify the admissions office of any disciplinary action taken after they've submitted their college applications.

"Your failure to do so will be grounds to deny or withdraw your admission, or to dismiss you after enrollment," the policy says.

Both the student and the school are required to provide a statement to the admissions office when a student is suspended, Stephen Farmer, vice provost and director of undergraduate admissions, wrote in an e-mail message.

Knott offered few details at the news conference. She couldn't say how many years students had the master key, whether all four students disciplined broke into the school or even when the incident occurred.

She said that the school is now discussing the possibility of setting up an honor court.

A year ago, Jane Hannon, then a senior at Chapel Hill High School, wrote an article for the monthly school newspaper headlined "Cheating Plagues Chapel Hill High."

She wrote that cheating had become commonplace in her classes and that students were getting away with it.

"Somewhere along the line, between parents and teachers, administration and fellow students, ethics have collectively fallen through the cracks," Hannon wrote.

After her article ran across the top of the front page, Hannon said no teacher or administrator asked her about the cheating problem she was describing.

"I feel that it was seen and it was just neglected," she said.