The honest truth about cheating in high school lurks just below the veneer of virtue: A whole lot of students do it, regularly and with impunity.
The Leland High School students disciplined last week in a test-stealing scandal differ from their high school peers around the Bay Area in one important respect: They got caught.
At least eight seniors and one junior at Leland High in San Jose copied from stolen tests, school officials say, and have been suspended. One faces expulsion.
Cheating is as old as testing, but among youths it is evolving in its ubiquity and apparent acceptance. These days, the Internet makes cheating easy. Indifferent teachers make it possible. And students at competitive schools like Leland say the workload and expectations often make the practice necessary.
"It's pretty much normal that kids are cheating on tests," senior Amanda Cendejas said about students in her upper-level classes at Leigh High School in San Jose.
And, students around the Bay Area said, they openly share exam and homework answers online and don't fear