Running head: NEWS_ARTICLE_1_DRDAVIS
NEWS_ARTICLE_1_DRDAVIS:
Corona del Mar District Hires Ethics Consultant
Deborah Davis
EDUC 740-D04: Leadership Principles and Ethics
Dr. Araceli G. Montoya
June 26, 2014
1
NEWS_ARTICLE_1_DRDAVIS
2
After a year-long cheating scandal and a draft-style pick of prom dates, The Corona del
Mar (CdM) high school district has hired a consultant to work with staff and students on ethical
issues (Fry, 2014). This is truly a sad state of affairs. For a full year, students were hacking
teacher computers and breaking into the school to steal testing materials. The school district
brokered a deal allowing the students to transfer with no other real sanctions against them. So,
not only did this school have an environment allowing for such an activity, but there have been
few, if any consequences for the actions that took place. The other main issue was picking prom
dates on a tiered basis as a group of young men slated the young women of their schools and
then chose them in a round-robin manner. The consultant will host a workshop to aid the school.
The article did not report if the workshop would be repeated, nor if there were to be any followup activities.
Exodus 20:15 states, “Thou shalt not steal” (KJV). Getting the test questions and
answers instead of learning the material is clearly stealing. There can be no ethical dispute about
this matter. In Genesis 1:27, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he
him; male and female created he them” (KJV) and Galations 3:28 says “ . . . there is neither male
nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (KJV). From this we know that treating people as
chattel is wrong. Ranking girls by their prettiness and selecting them in circuit for prom dates
does not grant any person the equality that God has given us all.
NEWS_ARTICLE_1_DRDAVIS
3
Reference
Fry, H. (2014, June 11). District hires ethics consultant in wake of cheating scandal. Daily Pilot
(Costa Mesa, CA).
NEWS_ARTICLE_1_DRDAVIS
4
District hires ethics consultant in wake of cheating scandal
Hannah Fry
June 11--Newport-Mesa Unified School District trustees on Tuesday voted unanimously to hire
an ethics consultant to improve the culture at Corona del Mar High School.
The district will spend $5,000 to hire Kevin O'Grady, of O'Grady School Solutions, to provide
training for students in diversity, honesty, inclusivity and ethics next school year. The Newport
Beach high school has faced scrutiny several times this year, motivating district officials to seek
out a consultant to improve the image of the school, which enjoys a high academic ranking.
"During the last school year, incidents have occurred that have demonstrated a need for training
on sensitivity, ethics, tolerance and bullying," the staff report states.
In December, eleven students were identified as participating in a years-long cheating scandal at
the high school.
Students' involvement ranged from breaking into the school to place keyloggers on the back of
teachers' computers in order to access exams and change grades to having knowledge of the
cheating.
The juniors and seniors involved opted to sign stipulated expulsion agreements in January that
prohibited them from returning to CdM this school year but allowed them to transfer to another
school in the district.
The district is still embroiled in a legal battle with the family of one of the students.
In May, CdM made headlines again after word spread that the high school's junior and senior
boys were selecting prom dates in the style of a professional sports league's draft.
The intent of the draft, which was described as "creepy" and "sexist" on social media, was to
avoid the infighting and controversy that often follows the selection of prom dates, students said.
NEWS_ARTICLE_1_DRDAVIS
5
While many CdM students saw the prom draft as harmless fun, Principal Kathy Scott condemned
the students' actions in a letter to the campus community. In it she explained that sexist behavior
would not be tolerated at the high school.
Ann Huntington, assistant superintendent of special education, said about the hiring of the
consultant: "We felt that he might be able to help the school work through some of the issues of
the past year. He's going to look at what it means to be a CdM student and talk about ways to be
more inclusive."
O'Grady will host a one-day workshop with CdM student leaders in August "to refresh their
culture and identity," Huntington said.
This isn't the first time the district has called on O'Grady to help restore CdM's image.
In 2009, according to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, several CdM varsity
athletes posted a video showing them threatening to rape and kill a female student who was the
lead actress in a student production of the musical "Rent." The athletes also used slurs in the
video to describe another classmate who they believed was gay, the lawsuit states.
Trustees will consider expanding O'Grady's services to the district's other schools in the fall,
Huntington said.
Trustee Martha Fluor said she's optimistic that the consultant will improve conditions at the high
school.
"It's a beginning point to have a conversation among students, staff and parents in terms of
developing good, solid ethical and moral character," she said. "That comes from home, but we're
here to support the families at school."
___ (c)2014 the Daily Pilot (Costa Mesa, Calif.) Visit the Daily Pilot (Costa Mesa, Calif.) at
www.dailypilot.com Distributed by MCT Information Services
NEWS_ARTICLE_1_DRDAVIS
6
Copyright of Daily Pilot (Costa Mesa, CA) is the property of Daily Pilot (Costa Mesa, CA).
The copyright in an individual article may be maintained by the author in certain cases. Content
may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright
holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for
individual
use. Source: Daily
Item: 2W62269504038
Pilot
(Costa
Mesa,
CA),
Jun
11,
2014