Cheating has always been around us, whether it’s cheating in a relationship, sports, games or gambling.The most common type of cheating I have seen among teenagers is academic cheating. Different ways students cheat in school include falsifying information, plagiarism and giving assignments to other students to cheat off of. In my opinion, the consequences students get are not harsh enough.

According to a survey on plagiarism.org done by the Josephson Institute Center for Youth Ethics, out of 43,000 high school students surveyed from both public and private schools, 59 percent of high school students admitted to cheating on a test during that year, and 34 percent even reported doing it more than two times. Students cheat for numerous reasons. These reasons may be because of pressure from teachers and parents to excel academically, wishing to help their friends, lack of effort or simply because other people do it too.

Students are not given the consequences they should be given if caught cheating. In my experience, students are simply given a zero on the assignment and everyone moves on. Students will not learn from their mistakes if they are just given a zero on an assignment or test. Teachers need to give students more serious consequences when they cheat so they aren't tempted to do it again. An example could be calling or e-mailing the student’s parents to tell them what their child did. If not, students will just do it again.

While I think students know that cheating is wrong, I don’t think they see it as serious enough to not do it again. Therefore, they will continue to do it unless punishments are harsher.