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The top two administrators at STA admit their school has a hidden problem with cheating. They acknowledge students write answers on their body parts. They know students provide other students answers to exams. They hear of students using cheat sheets. They realize students look at other students’ tests. They understand students copy one another’s homework assignments. They talk to students who plagiarize. And they discipline students writing formulas on calculators.

But are some of these things really cheating? Or, as some students believe, are students just being resourceful?

As a college preparatory school, some girls feel pressure to cheat in order to achieve. At a school with tuition and fees over $10,000 per year, parents reprimand their daughters for their grades, mentioning how much money has been spent on their education.

And with the label of “college preparatory” comes a rigorous workload. Daily, the stress and pressures can cause students to cheat. In fact, some of this cheating has become so habitual that students no longer recognize their behavior as cheating.

But as a Catholic school, STA teaches a Christian moral code. Theology classes like morality and Christian lifestyles teach lessons contrary to trading answers in the bathroom on the second floor during passing period.

But the question remains: Is cheating a real problem at STA?

“I don’t want to say [it is a problem], but I honestly think it is,” junior Sophia Garozzo said. “From tiny little things to big things like big, huge final exams, people cheat every single day.”

Why they cheat

Principal for student affairs Mary Anne Hoecker says cheating is happening in the school, and especially on homework.

“It’s become a habit, a way of life,” Hoecker said.

Hoecker believes students cheat for a variety of reasons.

“For some [students], they didn’t question it,” Hoecker said. “Some of them panic, they haven’t had enough study time, they’re terrified about not getting into the right college and they’re worried about measuring up to their parents’ expectations. And in that panic, they cheat because they see it as their way out.”

Senior Kelsey Wendland, a first honors student, believes cheating at STA has a lot to do with pressure.

“We go to a school that has such high standards and where we’re expected to get good grades,” Wendland said. “And if we’re not expected to get good grades, we’re at least expected to turn in our work and to turn it in on time.”

Garozzo guesses everyone at STA has cheated at some point, in some way.

“A lot of people [cheat], even really smart people,” Garozzo said. “It’s not just the people that aren’t geniuses.”

How they get away with it

According to Wendland, students have provided an accepting environment for cheating at STA. One of the contributing factors to this accepting environment is that students do not tell on one another when they see someone cheating.

“Even if it was [a] really serious [form of cheating], I would feel bad telling the teacher,” Wendland said. “Students are expected to stick up for students against teachers.”

Garozzo knows some people are really bothered when others cheat, but said most people do not care.

“Some people tell [on other students for cheating],” Garozzo said. “I would never tell. It has nothing to do with me and it doesn’t affect me.”

Wendland said STA has an environment that fosters cheating because it is not seen as a big deal to help someone else cheat.

“Often times, it happens so fast that people don’t register what they’re doing,” Wendland said. “It’s the nice response [to tell someone the answers] even though you shouldn’t be [doing] it.”

When have you gone too far?

Wendland said she has not experienced a lot of cheating on tests, but, instead, more of the “Can I see your worksheet?” type situations.

“No one considers it full-on cheating, but it’s not doing your own work,” Wendland said.

According to Wendland, you have to go pretty far to consciously recognize that what you are doing is cheating.

“We’ve gotten into a habit and trained ourselves to think it’s not a bad thing at all; we’ve desensitized ourselves from cheating,” Wendland said.

Wendland believes the point when you have crossed over to full on cheating is when you look off of someone’s paper without their consent.

“At that point, you’re not even asking their permission to use their work,” Wendland said.

Wendland said she will let someone look at her worksheet if that person usually does their homework. But, if it is someone who regularly does not do their homework, she said she tries to come up with some “lame” excuse as to why they cannot see her worksheet.

“My opinion is that you have to work hard in order to learn,” Wendland said. “And if you’re going to pay over $10,000 a year to go to STA, you should be taking advantage of it.”

How do we prevent it?

As to whether or not teachers are doing a good job of preventing cheating at STA, Garozzo believes they truly do all they can.

“Some teachers will watch you like a hawk,” Garozzo said. “It really varies between teachers. But, there’s only so much they can do.”

Wendland said some teachers’ approach is to rely on trusting their students or to just realize that if their students are going to cheat, they are not going to benefit from it in the long run. She added that when it comes to homework assignments, it is nearly impossible for teachers to prevent cheating when every student is leaving school with the same assignment.

Science teacher Amy Carlson says she does the best she can to watch her students during tests, but she knows cheating happens.

“I know it happens, but I’m not going to make myself sick about it,” Carlson said.

Wendland believes the only way to prevent cheating is for the students themselves to make the collaborative decision to stop cheating.

McCormick agrees.

“[The administration does not] walk around trying to catch people cheating,” McCormick said. “We enforce the consequences if and when the situation occurs, but we don’t walk around with a noose, ready to put someone in it.”

The consequences of cheating include a student behavior report (SBR) and a zero for the assignment.

“A zero on a test is going to hurt a student’s grade and GPA,” Hoecker said. “Some students who are struggling could fail the course.”

McCormick said STA tries to combat cheating by setting up these consequences, being protective of how exams are delivered and collected and by trying to keep the temptations of cheating away from students.

“But, we have to have students advocating against [cheating],” McCormick said. “Students have to respect themselves. There’s nothing we can do if we have that piece missing. Students have to embrace that moral value around cheating.”

New tools, new rules

Next year with the addition of laptops for each student, teachers will have to learn to deal with cheating in a whole new manner. Science teacher and technology committee member Renee Blake has been working to counteract this issue and believes laptops will decrease the ability for students to be able to cheat.

Each laptop will be installed with a program that enables teachers to view, from their own computers, what all students are working on. The program allows teachers to take a snapshot of the students’ screens and to record their movements. So, if a student is taking a test on moodle and minimizes the window to open a new one, that can all be recorded.

Valedictorian of the 2010 graduating senior class, Celeste Bremen, plans to attend the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania next fall. There she will study to become an actuary, or a specialist in risk mathematics.

Despite her academic accomplishments, only 7 of the 14 schools to which she applied accepted her as an admitted student.

With a 4.7 cumulative grade point average, Bremen has not achieved lower than an A- in her four years at STA. In fact, she has only received two of them: one in drawing I, first semester of her freshman year, and one in physical education, second semester of her freshman year.

Bremen scored a perfect 2400 on the SAT. She has won a number of academic awards at STA and beyond, including recognition as a National Merit Finalist and Missouri 100 Scholar and recognition in mathematics and science bowl competitions.

However, Bremen is modest about her accomplishments.

“I think my strengths are, well…” Bremen said, trailing off with a laugh. “I guess I just try to be self-disciplined and get stuff done.”

Friend of over ten years, senior Mia Hawkins, believes that much of Bremen’s success has come because of her work ethic.

“[Bremen] doesn’t procrastinate,” Hawkins said. “And she works really hard at everything she does, and she’s really diligent to make sure what she does is done correctly, not just slopped together.”

According to Hawkins, Bremen is a not only an outstanding student, but an outstanding all-around individual.

“Obviously her brilliance 2400 on the SAT is awesome,” Hawkins said. “But, also I think everyone sees how kind she is to everyone and how positive she is all the time.”

Hawkins and senior Nina Salazar agree Bremen is rarely seen without a smile. Math teacher and math team advisor Dr. Jo Weller also thinks Bremen particularly stands out because of her attitude.

“I think what’s great about Celeste is that her enthusiasm for learning is genuine and even when she’s buried in all this work, she always carries a positive attitude,” Weller said.

Because of her accomplishments, dedication to education and kind nature, many students look up to Bremen, Hawkins believes. Salazar agrees.

“I personally look up to [Bremen],” Salazar said. “I think quite a few people do. I can’t think of one bad quality she has.”

Weller believes that Bremen’s diligence in her work ethic has helped her in high school and will continue to help her to succeed at the collegiate level.

“I think she’ll do great in college because she knows how to balance her time, and she knows how to study, and she knows how to enjoy life,” Weller said.

For the STA math team, not every problem has been as easy as “pi,” but that does not stop the competitions from honoring their hard work.

“We’ve had a great year,” mathlete, junior Libby O’Neil said. “I’m really proud of how we have done at the competitions.”

The math team received second place as a school in the small division in the Kansas City Area Teachers of Mathematics (KCATM) competition and regional championship award in the Missouri Mathematics League (MOML) competition winning second place in state. According to O’Neil, this ended an extremely successful year with their largest team to date.

“This year we have a really great group of people on the team,” O’Neil said. “We are all really good at math and the meetings really help us prepare for competitions.”

STA Math Team

Seniors: Lindsay Bowers, Celeste Bremen, Kylie Hornbeck, Stacy Hymer, Kayla Kratofil, Shaughnessy Miller, Rebecca Oyler, Colleen Riley, Rachel Winslow

Juniors: Cydney Chibnall, Mary Frey, Maggie Holt, Kathleen Hough, Molly Kenney, Sarah Moran, Libby O’Neil, Sue Seemani

Sophmores: Mackenzie Jones, Kate Needham, Megan Schilling, Erin Sellers, Paige Wendland, Hannah Wolf

Freshman: Sarah Frey, Lane Maguire, Nikki Rodriguez, Elaine Schmidt, Libby Stoops

The team gathers once a month under the guidance of math teacher, Dr. Jo Weller to practice and compete in three competitions of the year. The team competes in two out of school local competition, Johnson County Community College hosts the Great Plains Math League competition on Dec. 5 and Olathe East hosts the KCATM competition March 3. The in-school regional competition, the MOML, continues throughout the school year.

“[What I love most about math team] is that once a month I can spend time with people who just love math,” mathlete, junior Maggie Holt said. “It is really encouraging, especially when there are such intelligent people on the team. It is very inspiring.”

For the MOML competition, the team score is determined by a series of submitted answers to ten questions given each month.

“Whenever we get together, it gets our brains thinking,” mathlete, senior Celeste Bremen said.

During the KCATM competition, 15 STA mathletes received individual awards, including Bremen who received first place All-Around Senior and Paige Wendland who received second place All-Around Sophomore.

According to Bremen, the team not only works hard, but enjoys spending time with one another, going out to lunch after competitions and celebrating their annual Pi Day.

“The best part of math team is definitely Pi Day,” Bremen said.

Each year math enthusiasts celebrate Pi Day around the world March 14 or 3/14 because of the mathematical symbol pi which equals approximately 3.14. According to O’Neil, the team greatly anticipates this event, not only because it is a fun-filled bonding experience, but because Weller brings six different types of homemade pies.

“We do like to talk about math together, but [Weller] just brings the best desserts,” Holt said.

The STA math team has worked hard this year, according to O’Neil but there is more to math team than just crunching numbers, especially in the case when “pi” is involved.

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