Cheating Episode Roils Elite O.C. School

Thirteen top students at Sunny Hills High School, which ranks among the academic cream in California, have been booted from the National Honor Society for cheating in a philosophy course, school officials said Wednesday.

The 13, including the president, vice president and treasurer of the school’s chapter of the honor society, were among about 20 or more students who copied homework from each other in a senior honors class called Theory of Knowledge.

All of the students received a grade of zero on the assignment and a note in their student record. Their parents were also notified.

“It’s a serious issue because it brings to the forefront that on our campus, which is so competitive, you’re going to see some cheating,” said Cynthia Martini, a counselor at the Fullerton school. “Many students feel pressure to compete at the highest level.”

Sunny Hills has a stellar academic reputation that stretches across the Pacific Ocean, and has historically had a dropout rate of zero. Already this year, before the big Ivy League mailings have gone out, three students have been admitted to Harvard, one to Yale and one to Stanford.

The cheating incident arose in February, when students were assigned to review 10 texts on scientific theory and write an outline summarizing their reading. The students involved apparently divided the work among themselves and copied whole sections from each other, Martini said.

The 13 honor society students were dropped last month. Traditionally, the society’s members, chosen for their high grades and leadership, wear gold and blue cords with their caps and gowns to mark their achievement. These students will miss out on that distinction, as the society’s rules call for dropping students on their first cheating offense.

One of the 13 said that at first he thought the punishment was fair, but now thinks it was too harsh.

“Reflecting back on the issue,” he said, “I really don’t believe the punishment is on par with, say, copying a test. In all honesty, a homework assignment doesn’t carry quite as much weight as other situations.”

The senior said he and some of the other students believe they were “the sacrificial lambs” of school officials’ efforts to curb cheating. But his main concern, he said, is whether this will hurt his chances with the three prestigious colleges that already have accepted him.

Principal Loring Davies said the school does not plan to report the students’ names to any universities unless admissions officers specifically ask for such information.

Davies declined to release the names of the students involved, citing privacy concerns. He said none had been caught cheating before. The school is on spring break this week.

“Obviously we’re concerned,” Davies said. He said the school has a stringent “academic honesty code,” which is spelled out in every classroom annually. After three violations, he said, a student receives an F and is dropped from a class.

Davies said a reminder about the code was sent home in a parent newsletter after the incident.

School officials said the students have acknowledged they were in the wrong.

Patrick Lampman, the teacher of the course, declined to comment on specifics of the incident. But he said: “I was encouraged by the reaction of the students and the parents, and the support extended by the administration and the counseling department.”

One student in Lampman’s course who declined to be named and was not involved in the incident said the punishment of cheaters is “long overdue.

“Cheating has gone on at our school and every other high school for such a long time. Finally, some action has been taken,” the student said.

But Martini and Davies both said this was the most extensive cheating incident they have encountered at Sunny Hills.

“It’s a shame” Martini said. “The students I knew were students I have great trust in. For me, they’ve always been very honest, and people who had great integrity. I still believe that. They understand that what they did was wrong.”

In recent years, Sunny Hills has been connected with a string of tragic or notorious events. Last October, two students died in a car accident while apparently on their way to the school’s homecoming dance. Earlier in 1996, a Sunny Hills graduate was convicted of murdering his parents and younger brother.

In 1994, a former candidate for valedictorian at Sunny Hills was sentenced to life in prison for masterminding the brutal slaying of a student at Foothill High. That same year, a former Sunny Hills teacher was sentenced for fondling and making sexual overtures to several female students.

Times staff writer Thao Hua contributed to this report.