The other day I heard a frightening statement.

“Did you know Alex* has a higher GPA than me?”

“Really? Doesn’t he cheat on everything?,” the other person responded.

It was true. I had several classes with Alex, and when he wasn’t cheating in those classes, he was preparing to cheat in others. I was shocked, it never occurred to me that the people that cheat would have great grades. You always hear about the occasional cheating here and there, but the people that do it all the time have a huge ripple affect.

When Alex’s class rank came out, he was top 15%. That means that he had better grades than 85% of people in his grade. He was putting in almost no effort (and the effort he did put in was to cheating), and was reaping good results.

The problem with cheating is the fact that you’re not just helping yourself, you’re hurting others. Anytime you cheat, your class rank and GPA go higher. Since one person goes up, another must come down.

Cheating may be helpful now, but in the long run, it will only hurt. High school is great place to learn good study habits for college. Since you aren’t developing those habits now, you’re only making college that much harder. It’s not like you can cheat in college, too. If you get caught, that’s it. Boom. You’re done. Just like that. Before you even knew what happened, you’re out.

Cheating is a big problem in schools. It’s one that will always persist, and with technology growing, it will be harder and harder to notice. Students need to raise awareness to stop this from spreading further. It’s not just you that you’re hurting…it’s others.

*Name changed to protect student’s identity.