2 Student Leaders Temporarily Lose Posts for Cheating

The Brea Olinda Unified school board suspended two student government leaders from their elected positions after they admitted to cheating on an honors physics test, district officials said Wednesday.

Effective immediately, the two seniors at Brea Olinda High School, the student body president and class vice president, were suspended from office until November, the end of the fall quarter.

They also will be on a behavior contract and participate in a school-wide effort to address academic honesty and ethics.

The students are not being named because they are minors.

The two, along with 10 additional students, were caught in June sharing a stolen copy of a physics final exam. All 12 were given a failing grade on the test. After protests from parents that the punishment was too lenient, the board moved to impose harsher penalties against the two student leaders.

“The students involved have greatly disappointed school staff, parents, students and the community,” said school board president Susie Sokol. “Cheating is a very serious violation of school policies that will not be tolerated in our district.”

Another cheating incident at the school in June involved a valedictorian who entered his English teacher’s computer files and changed his grade from a B to an A, school officials said. He was barred from graduation ceremonies and his valedictorian title was revoked.

As a result of the two incidents, a task force of parents, teachers, students and community members has been formed to investigate student cheating, find ways to prevent and detect it, and recommend discipline for those who do cheat.