A Letter From the Editors: In Regards to the Disgraceful Cheating Scandal

The New York Post recently published an article, titled “The Disgraceful Cheating Scandal At One of America’s Best High Schools,” by Sara Dorn and Susan Edelman. The piece sourced statistics from The Spectator’s recent spread, “Academic Dishonesty: An Inherent Issue?” by Chloe Hanson, Wen Shan Jiang, and Blythe Zadrozny.

Dorn and Edelman’s article was put on the front page on January 28 with the headline, “The Cheat Goes On.” Since then, the Spectator’s Editorial Board has received backlash questioning our decision to publish this piece. A number of our readers have suggested that we hadn’t taken into account the school or students’ “interests” and that our decision to publish was rash and unconsidered.

The Spectator aims to objectively investigate and report on issues that are relevant to the student body, whether or not they are in the students’ or administration’s “interests.” We call ourselves “The Pulse of the Student Body” because we are not an arm of the administration, nor do we seek to protect it. Perhaps it was not in the interest of college admissions to publish the survey, but it is not The Spectator’s job to advertise on behalf of Stuyvesant students. Our article was published in the genuine interest of the student body in order to seek reform in an education system that may encourage cheating before learning.

Student journalism is an observational form of activism; we report on the school’s faults and achievements to enlighten the population and hope our work inspires change.

The survey’s results, which illustrate the perhaps endemic nature of cheating at Stuyvesant, are pertinent. Though the sample size was one in 10, something the Post failed to mention, the results do illuminate what many consider to be a trend. And regardless of reaction, the public and, in particular, the student body, should be informed about the school's environment—the survey was not an editorial, nor a form of yellow journalism seeking to inflame the public (as the New York Post has used it), but rather an objective investigation.

In a world where professional reporting is under siege and objective information is labeled "fake news," it is now more important than ever that local sources of journalism, like The Spectator, be able to report independently of the special interests of larger institutions. We hope that our readers share that sentiment.

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