Ethics Boundaries Still Appear Fuzzy

Teen Cheating Poll's Results Reflect Pressure, Some Believe

Ben Donovan, a senior at McLean High School, knows that teenagers aren't perfect. Some lie. Some cheat. And some steal. Still, he said, results from a national survey by the Josephson Institute of Ethics paint far too grim a portrait of his generation.

In the 2006 survey of more than 36,000 high school students, 60 percent said they cheated on a test, 82 percent said they lied to their parents about something significant and 28 percent said they stole something from a store. The percentages are slightly lower than those in the 2002 survey and about the same from 2004.

"It's not that cheating and dishonesty doesn't happen, because they do, but I think the idea that my generation is this 'hole in the moral ozone' that they claim us to be is absurd," said Donovan, 18, who is leading the fight against a plan by his school to require that student work be submitted to a commercial database that polices plagiarism. He argues that would infringe on the students' intellectual property rights.

Michael Josephson, founder and president of the California-based institute, which does the survey every two years, believes that the students are influenced by adult behavior.

Ethics scandals involving politicians, chief executives and teachers, he said, have done little to model the importance of integrity.

And sometimes, it's not just students but educators who are the problem, he noted. One example: A principal at a Charles County elementary school was forced to resign this year after officials learned that students had been given answers, extra time and coaching on statewide exams this past spring.

Although the survey responses have "gotten better in some respects," Josephson said, "we have to be much more alarmed about this.

"For better or worse, this is the next generation. It is a staggering indictment on parents and teachers. We can condemn kids, but they're not moral mutants."

Even though more than half of students surveyed said they cheated, 92 percent said they were "satisfied with my own ethics and character." About 74 percent said that "when it comes to doing right, I am better than most people I know."

Stephen Sery, a senior at Springbrook High School in Silver Spring, said he wasn't surprised by the survey's findings. The students' answers reflect "a general decline in morals and ethics as a whole."

"The accepted secular view now is not to condemn anybody but just to say, 'It's okay if they think that's right for them,' " the 17-year-old high school newspaper photographer said in an e-mail.

School administrators acknowledge that cheating has always been an issue on campus, but trying to define the scope of the problem is difficult. Some say students today might be more apt to take shortcuts on assignments because they are stretched too thin, while others may not realize that some of the things they do -- such as sharing homework -- is considered cheating.