The biggest cheating case in the school’s history has left the West Point motto “Country, Honor, Duty” in the dust. West Point graduates take the Pledge of Allegiance on June 13, 2020.
Seventy-three first- and second-year students at West Point cheated on remote exams during an epidemic last May, making it the largest cheating scandal in the history of the prestigious U.S. military school. On Friday, the school announced the results of the punishment, a total of 51 people need to repeat a year.
The school said that of the 73 people investigated by the “student honor committee” (cadet honor committee), six students left the school during the investigation, four were found not guilty by their peer board and two others were released for lack of evidence.
However, 51 of those who cheated last year were required by the school to repeat the year after admitting to cheating, and two of them were transferred back after six months, but eight were expelled from the school.
In a statement, West Point President Darryl A. Williams said, “West Point must be the gold standard for the development of Army officers; we hold our graduates to an impeccable standard.”
Because of the scale of the cheating, West Point also said it would end the six-year-old Willful Admission Process (WAP).
“The WAP was originally intended to protect West Point students who immediately admitted to breaking school rules, as well as to reduce the extent to which students violated school rules and avoid expulsion, but has apparently failed in its goal of encouraging students to be honest with themselves.
When the massive cheating scandal broke out in May 2020, Tim Bakken, a law teacher at West Point, said that the scandal involving dozens of “the nation’s future senior officers” was a national security issue, as the school’s students were expected to enter the top ranks of the U.S. military in the future.
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