TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES.

• Author: RELIN, DAVID OLIVER
• Position: Cheating on exams

More than 70 percent of America's high school students admit they've cheated on exams. Are they only cheating themselves?

Forget for a minute just how many high school students cheat. Let's talk technique. Ivan Baumwell watched one friend print out the answers to a history test in tiny type and tape them inside her water bottle. Devon Watts pried apart her watch before an exam and slid a cheat sheet in front of the watch face. Lindsey Kleidman's classmates took tissues from their teacher's desk during a math test, so they could read the answer key upside down. But one method may set a new low in cheating creativity: Trevor Snell says he watched another student take advantage of his school's liberal eating-in-class policy by hollowing out an apple and stuffing answers to a physics test inside.

These students were among the dozens across the country whom UPFRONT asked for their experiences with cheating. Everyone interviewed said that cheating was widespread in their schools. The majority admitted cheating at some point themselves. Does that mean that their schools are isolated academic disaster areas? Hardly, according to a disturbing new report on cheating published this fall. It just makes them typical.

A national survey of 8,600 students released in October by the Josephson Institute of Ethics, an independent, nonprofit group in Marina del Rey, California, reveals what a cheating-happy culture high school has become: 71 percent of American teenagers admitted cheating on at least one exam within the last year, up from 60 percent in 1990; and 78 percent said they'd lied to a teacher. "That's a conservative estimate," says Michael Josephson, who directed the survey. "We know many of the students we questioned won't admit to cheating." How big does that make America's cheating problem? "Huge," Josephson says. "It's a hole in the moral ozone layer."

So why is America becoming a nation of cheaters? Is pressure to succeed at any cost taking the place of pride in one's accomplishments? Are too many teachers asleep at the wheel? Do public role models get caught cheating so often that the behavior begins to seem normal? Every student we spoke with has his or her own explanation. The only thing they agreed on was that cheating is everywhere.

Kent Petrino, 17, of Lake Brantley High in Altamonte Springs, Florida, blames clueless teachers. "They need to pay more attention if they want to stop students from cheating," he says. "A lot of kids are really obvious about cheating because they know they can get away with it."

Teachers, not surprisingly, reject this excuse. "It's true some teachers are oblivious," says Kent's government teacher, Judy Carrico. "But our job is to teach, not to police every student. I really think parents have to instill this in their kids. And kids need to monitor themselves. We have so much to do, we can't do it for them."

Hillary Caltagirone, 14, a student at Arlington High School in...