According to a report by USA Today on the 21st local time, more than 70 students of the U.S. Military Academy of West Point were accused of cheating in the math test. The school said that this was the worst academic scandal at the U.S. military officer training base since the 1970s.
Affected by the epidemic, the examination was conducted remotely. At present, 58 participants admit to cheating, and most of them are required to participate in a six-month tutoring program, which includes discussing the mistakes made with their tutors.
They will stay in the school for the rest of the college. Four students have dropped out of school, and another 12 have to be reviewed by the Executive Council.
According to USA Today, the scandal hit the core of West Point’s reputation.
The academy’s code of ethics is engraved on stone: “West Point cadets will not lie, deceive or steal, nor will others tolerate doing so.”
Tim Bakken, a law professor at West Point, said the scandal was a “national security” issue, because the cadets of the military school would become senior leaders on which the United States depends in the future.
Barken said: “The basic rule of cadets is not to lie, cheat or steal. There is no excuse for cheating.
Therefore, when the military tries to downplay the impact of college cheating, we are actually downplaying the impact on the whole army. We rely on the military to tell us honestly when it’s time to go to war and when we can win.”
However, Army Colonel Mark Weathers, the chief of staff of West Point, said in an interview on Monday that he was “disappointed” by the cadet’s cheating, but he did not think the incident was a serious violation of the school’s rules.
He said that if students took the exam at school, this would not happen.
Teachers at West Point initially determined that in the May calculus final exam, 72 first-year and second-year cadets cheated because they made the same mistake in one part of the test.
