Cheating has become increasingly easier for students. With the power of the internet at their fingertips, students have the ability to look up answers or ask their classmates to share their own answers with them. 

While many students have cheated without being caught, that’s not always the case. Teachers have different ways of dealing with cheating. 

When Social Studies teacher Kayte Cormack realized some cheating had occured in her first block AP Government class, the whole class had to retake the test. Cormack said she saw it as a learning experience because on an actual AP test everybody would have to come in and retake it.

“(When Cormack told us that we had to re-take the test) I felt super frustrated, because I know I didn’t do anything (wrong), but I know so many people that did,” senior Gaby Guzman said. 

Many teachers handle situations on a case-by-case basis. Sometimes peer editing a friend’s paper can turn into a misunderstanding where the teacher may think cheating had occured. 

Senior Jordan French looked over senior Cierra O’Neil’s English paper for mistakes and then accidentally submitted O’Neils paper. English teacher Erin Rivers was prepared to give them both zeros. 

“After initially freaking out because I had a 100 percent plagiarism rate on Turnitin, I discussed it with Rivers and she was pretty understanding,” senior Cierra O’Neil explained. “She did mention that if that had happened in a college class, the professor would have probably given us both zeros. It definitely made me more careful.”