Assistant Principal Lee Tobey spoke in front of all four grades on the first day of school on August 31. Along with the typical “welcome-back” address, she announced the changes to several policies for the upcoming school year; however, the most prominent revisions lie in the cheating policy.

  This year, teachers have the ability to control both the behavioral and academic consequences in their classrooms as necessary, which includes giving zeroes.

  However, just last year administration treated cheating as just a behavioral issue, so this year they chose to update the policy.

  “There is a lot of flexibility now for teachers with what they can do instead of giving a zero.  There is a report that can be written on the student’s behalf on how cheating would affect their future, and there are detentions that can be given — even Saturday detentions — so there are a lot of more options now,” said science teacher Lara Walleston.

  Despite their application of the policy, faculty and administration are not the only impetuses for change.

  “It was really a reaction to what [students] wanted. The Rebellion came out with a huge article last year, and we read it and took it to heart,” said Tobey.

  The Rebellion poll results showed that 70% of students have cheated or currently cheat.  In addition, only 34 out of 66 students caught cheating said they were punished. These numbers, along with complaints from students, led to the alteration of the policy.

These statistics not only influenced  administration to change the policy,  but individual teachers  are   also    enforcing their own  regulations as well.

  “First thing I  changed involves cell phone use. I’m having my students submit their cellphones to me only before a test or a quiz, [or] any kind of assessment,” said math teacher Ashley Cannon.

   As  a  result of  the  changes  to  the  cheating  policy, teachers  have  a  new  flexibility  when  it  comes to  consequences that  they  will  put  to  the  test  this  year.

  “It’s always a work in progress,” said Tobey. “We are going to try it to see what works and doesn’t work and we will adjust accordingly.”