Air Force Academy Cheating Scandal Grows

[RamboLiberal]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/02/15/national/a160056S54.DTL

The Air Force Academy said Thursday that 24 freshman cadets have now admitted cheating on a test and 12 others are under investigation but have denied wrongdoing.

The school originally said 19 students had admitted cheating and nine others were under investigation.

Two-thirds of the cases involve athletes, Air Force Academy spokesman Johnny Whitaker told The Gazette. The academy did not say what teams were involved.

The cheating occurred when cadets obtained answers to an upcoming test and forwarded them through an Internet social group and private computer messages, officials said.

The test was part of a weekly series of exams on general knowledge about the Air Force. The exams do not affect cadets' grade-point averages but are required for students to advance to their second year.

[donco6]

1. Interesting. Since the fundie Christian influence has . . .

. . . grown over the AF Academy, we see more and more cases of lying, cheating, rape, whatever. Great impact Christianity has made there.

[Mabus]

3. In my town

one of the Christian schools was competing in a soapbox derby a few years ago. The son of the school's president was one of the entrants. The kid lost control of his car and had an accident. Unfortunately for everyone there, the kid's car had mercury in it for extra weight. The crash caused the mercury's container to shatter the hazmat group was called out and, well, it was a mess. The race was held at a public school and since it was a grade school thing, there were hundreds of kids.

Another of our Christian school leaders killed his wife because god didn't like divorce. :eyes: During his trial, his secret double-life seeking other rubber/S&M fetish dates on the internet as well as his other house in an nearby town that he had rented with his girlfriend (whom he found on the internet & who was responsible for a lot of rubber/S&M photos on their respective computers) came to light. As did his internet searches on how to strangle someone and how to identify when someone was in their deepest sleep cycle. He's serving a life sentence now. At some point, he had to resign from the Christian school.

Where was I going with this? Oh yeah. There's no hypocrisy when Christians are around. :evilgrin:



Disclaimer: there are a lot of great Christian people out there. I understand there are a few wackos who get way too much attention.

[tanyev]

15. Mercury. Used as weight. In a soapbox derby.

Unbelievable. They need a little more science in their science program.

[Frank Cannon]

26. How could someone even got hold of that much mercury?

Anyone who could surely would know the hazards.

That's just crazy.

[brentspeak]

18. When I was a cub scout, some kids tried to cheat in the pinewood derby

by using way more lead inside their pinewood cars than was allowed. As it turned out, their dads were the ones helping them cheat.

[MGD]

19. I have seen this too. nt

[LonelyLRLiberal]

5. That was my very first thought, too.

Like so many "Christians" the "Christianity" seems to be just an excuse to do whatever you want. After all, doesn't Jesus forgive all your sins once you declare your belief?

[donco6]

6. That seems to be the overriding philosophy these days.

If Jesus really existed, he must be ashamed of what's happened to his name.

[LonelyLRLiberal]

7. If Jesus existed, he would be kicking some ass, I imagine.

Oh, wait, Jesus was a pacifist, wasn't he?

[donco6]

8. Not always.

He cleared the Temple with a whip. Sounds pretty activist to me.

But I'm sure he did it cooly without any outrage. (sorry, inside joke)

[LonelyLRLiberal]

9. I'll have to read up on that - didn't know a whip was involved.

My favorite Jesus is the one on South Park. Satan and Saddam on South Park are funnier, though.

[Frank Cannon]

28. I imagine he was a pretty buff, intimidating dude

He was a carpenter, after all, in the post-and-lintel days long before Black & Decker.

I don't think he was the slight, emaciated thing you see in all the crucifixion paintings.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

32. Hmmm....

[kestrel91316]

10. Yep, all you have to do is keep saying the Magic Jesus Words(TM)

with some regularity and you get a free pass into heaven, no matter how bad a person you are. So they know how to game the system, and game it they do!

I for one will be happily schmoozing with ALL MY FRIENDS IN HELL. That's where the normal, cool people are gonna be.

[LostinVA]

14. My first reaction, too

Tres interesting, huh?

[yellowcanine]

25. Easily explainable. "Cheating for Jesus" is just another form of "Lying for Jesus"

If by cheating the cadets are able to get themselves into a position where they can better glorify God, then "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!"

[hatrack]

2. But . . . but . . . I thought the AF Academy was a bastion of fundie "Christian" values?

Maybe I've just been listening to that darned Liberal Media again!

[Mabus]

4. Just like the KC area

and you should drop by (again) at the Westport Flea Market and bask in some of them with the rest of us KC-area DU'ers.

[pinniped]

11. So, cheating is not wrong????

24 freshman cadets have now admitted cheating on a test and 12 others are under investigation but have denied wrongdoing.

WTF?

[Canuckistanian]

22. Cheating is now an honorable Republican trait

"If it feels good, cheat, lie and steal" is their new motto.

[PassingFair]

24. It's not cheating if we don't enforce the RULES.

Or better yet, write laws that make cheating
LEGAL!

The common good does NOT EXIST for these mentalities.

At All.

This MUST be understood.

[reprobate]

27. Only if the get away with it. Get caught and they're on their own.

[Springster]

12. This is not trivial. Unless USAFA has changed its Honor System significantly, the

only punishment for those guilty of cheating is dismissal from the Academy.

I am a graduate of the US Military Academy (USMA - West Point - the original - to be emulated by the rest!) and lost about 150 classmates in our school's largest cheating incident. In my company of about 120, 30 of us started our 2nd class year (Junior) year and only 10 of us graduated with our class.

While 24 out of about 4000 cadets may seem like a very small percentage, about one half of one percent, it is huge for those involved.

Cadets come from all over the US and have learned very different values up to the point they under the Academy. We tell them that over the next four years we will educate and train them in Military, Academics, Leadership and Physical disciplines - but from day one, the absolute minimum standard in Honor is perfection with no toleration for even minor infractions. It's unrealistic that taking the oath of office - USAFA cadets are on active duty in the Regular Air Force - they have had the training & time to internalize the Honor Code. The USAFA code is similar to USMA and I believe that it's: "We will not lie, cheat , or steal nor tolerate among us those who do." You get just as kicked out for NOT reporting a violation as committing one.

I wouldn't make light of this but would instead think about the cost in human terms - 24 careers, perhaps the AF's next Ace or MOH recipient - truncated barely out of the starting gate.

[tabasco]

38. Boohoohoo. Weeding out the undesirables.

The last thing the military needs is more officers without a moral compass. Just more future yes-men for the neocon cabal. These cadets knew the rules and broke them. I'm happy for the cadets that followed the rules. Now they do not have to compete against cheaters and liars. Good riddance to the bums.

[SpiralHawk]

13. Onward 'christian' soldiers

Good thing the christorepublicons are in charge of morality in Colorado Springs.

I suppose they had a lecture on morals from Ted Haggard,
and possibly even George Bush's beloved Jeff Gannon --

paragons of republicon moral virtue.

[jody]

16. Sad but 4,264 USAF academy students did not cheat. That's better than other universities. n/t

[PassingFair]

23. Or they haven't been caught yet.

This kind of *ullshit goes on where I work, too.

X-tians aside, our culture REWARDS WINNERS, it does
NOT seem to care HOW THEY GET THERE.

It pats them on the back for GIVING IT EVERYTHING
THEY'VE GOT, 110%!

In my office environment, cheating and bending the
rules was NECESSARY to win the "prizes" they wanted
you to compete for.

When I complained that EVERYONE was using bogus price
incentives (against the rules)my manager said, in an
exasperated, mommy-knows-best manner "Just because someone
else jumps off a bridge, should YOU jump off the bridge, too?"

I said, "Look, if I'm on the bridge, and someone jumps off,
swims to the bank, gets helped up, and is given a PRIZE,
HELL YES, I'M JUMPING!"

Getting CAUGHT seems to be the only crime.
And enforcement is capricious.
These people play the odds and see themselves
as the ones who "deserve" the reward, because
they are willing to risk the punishment, if it
ever comes.

Psychopathic Personalities run amok.

[jody]

29. Using your logic & assuming you're not a convicted felon, you're just a felon who hasn't been caught

or perhaps you're not a felon after all.

I'll assume you're not a felon and the 4,264 USAF Academy cadets did not cheat.

[PassingFair]

30. It's not my "logic".

It's the current system.

You can make all the assumptions you want.

[jody]

33. If you use it, then it's your logic regardless of the source. n/t

[PassingFair]

34. "That's better than other universities."

Guess we don't all have YOUR sources.

Thanks, SunnyJim!

[jody]

35. Academic Dishonesty Today

Academic Dishonesty Today

Academic dishonesty is endemic in all levels of education. In the United States, studies show that 20% of students started cheating in the first grade <4> Similarly, other studies reveal that currently in the U.S., 56% of middle school students and 70% of high school students have cheated.<5>

The first scholarly studies in the 1960s of academic dishonesty in higher education found that nationally in the U.S., somewhere between 50%-70% of college students had cheated at least once.<6> While nationally, these rates of cheating in the U.S. remain stable today, there are large disparities between different schools, depending on the size, selectivity, and anti-cheating policies of the school. Generally, the smaller and more selective the college, the less cheating occurs there. For instance, the number of students who have engaged in academic dishonesty at small elite liberal arts colleges can be as low as 15%-20%, while cheating at large public universities can be as high as 75%.<7> Moreover, researchers have found that students who attend a school with an honor code are less likely to cheat than students at schools with other ways of enforcing academic integrity.<8>

While research on academic dishonesty in other countries is minimal, anecdotal evidence suggests cheating could be even more common in countries like Japan.<9>

[PassingFair]

36. Honor code?

http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=10883

snip>“It’s not a Christian-Jew thing, it’s Evangelical Christian vs. everybody else,” he stressed. “The viciousness is as bad against mainline Protestants as it is against Catholics as it is against Jews. … For the last 10 to 15 years, maybe more, ignored this growing cancer of Evangelical intrusion.”

Mikey Weinstein said he learned that it “might be very common” for a professor to introduce himself at the beginning of the school year, announce that he is a born-again Christian and say that by the end of the semester he hoped they would be, too."



Depends on what your definition of "honor" is, I guess, and
whether it has been GROUND into DUST.

It will be interesting to see if the kids get ousted.

[jody]

37. Have a peaceful evening. n/t

[brentspeak]

17. It's harder to get into one of the federal military academies than it is to get into Harvard or Yale

How did these lamebrains get admitted in the first place?

[MGD]

20. If you aren't cheating, you aren't trying hard enough. That's an old Army motto anyways. nt

[catmandu57]

21. Didn't this just happen a while back

as well it seems to me I read about a cheating scandal at the Air Force Acadamy hyst a year or two ago.

[Cobalt-60]

31. It should be the walk of shame for all of them