This year the STA administration is creating two new groups on campus that will focus their attention on the issue of cheating amongst students at STA. 
Principal for student affairs Mary Anne Hoecker is organizing the student focus group that will gather and discuss the issue and the student’s perspective on the topic.
‘[Administration] was aware of a percentage of cheating happening on tests and sometimes finals and quizzes, even homework,” Hoecker said. ‘We wanted to find out more about it, what we might do to discourage it. I really want to hear from more students and what they have to say about it.’  
Hoecker has high expectations for the group and what they will discuss.
“[I hope] that we have a broader understanding of why students cheat and come up with some solutions to lower cheating,’ Hoecker said. ‘There are things that teachers need to do, if they’re not already doing them. For example, it is  a teacher’s responsibility to watch a class during a test or quiz.’
But Hoecker said that students also have to be accountable for their actions when it comes to cheating.
‘It is a student’s responsibility to take a look at why they [cheat] and tailor that behavior,’ Hoecker said.
Principal of academic affairs Barbara McCormick is in charge of the teacher committee to counter-act cheating in the STA community.
‘Right now we are just talking and brainstorming ideas from all of the faculty and staff about possible solutions to cheating here at STA,’ McCormick said. ‘We have yet to actually form the teacher sub-committee because this project is still in the infancy stages.’
According to McCormick, the teachers were asked questions regarding why students cheat and what they can do to eliminate cheating on homework and assessments.
‘We need to understand the elements that breed cheating,’ McCormick said. ‘Is it peer pressure? Is it parent pressure? Personal pressure?’
McCormick also stated that because STA is a Catholic school that talks about morals and ethics, teachers need to know what to do when students do not make the right choices and decide to cheat on their work.
‘We are obviously not getting it across to do the right thing and we need address it,’ McCormick said.
The next brainstorming session with teachers about cheating will be in October. The student meeting has yet to be announced.

As she checked her e-mail, she opened a new document that one of her friends had just sent her. Tapping her fingers while she waited for it to open she couldn’t help but feel relieved knowing that she would have some help studying for her final. She had heard around school lately that some juniors had a ‘special’ study guide for the test that was supposed to really help.
Bing. The document had finished downloading. She printed it off and slipped the page into her periodic table that she would be allowed to have during her exam. There was no room left on the outside of the folder to just write it down.
As the week of the test approached, she still studied and prepared for her final, but she was less worried about her chemistry final because she had the periodic table containing her cheat sheet to use if she couldn’t remember something.
At the final, however, she realized that the study guide was not just a study guide. It was the exact answers to the test in sentence form.
‘I put it away because I felt guilty,’ the student, who wished to remain anonymous said.

She slipped the sheet of paper under her periodic table so that only part of the sheet was sticking out.
‘Ms. Rietbrock was walking around watching people while they took the test,’ she said.
She went on taking her test, until she saw out of the corner of her eye flutters of movement around her. Chemistry teacher Mary Rietbrock was walking up to her table and everyone else who was sitting at her table using the same sheet quickly hid theirs. But she didn’t move as fast and her paper was still out.
‘What is that and why do you have that?’ Rietbrock asked.
A sinking feeling hit the pit of her stomach as she realized what had just happened. She had been caught.
‘[Ms. Rietbrock] told me I could turn my test in and leave,’ she explained.
Feeling horrible leaving the building, she got into her car and started driving.
‘I didn’t want to go home right away and face my parents…I was scared and felt really dumb,’ she said. ‘If I had just studied I would not have needed to cheat. It was also really frustrating because I knew so many more people had that sheet and I was the only one that was caught.’