Chattering with curiosity, freshman began to file into the Lecture Hall, wondering what the scheduled presentation would be about. Pamela Gravitte, the Class of 2020 administrator and vice principal, stood at the front of the Lecture Hall, waiting by a large screen that said in bold letters “Integrity Violation Review process at TJHSST.”  On JAN. 4, the crowds soon began to realize that the reason for their booked 8th period was to attend a lecture on cheating and integrity violation.

The lecture began with a short introduction about the recent integrity violation awareness the school has promoted. For example, recently, school staff have instructed paper posters that gave step-by-step instructions on how to report an integrity violation to be taped on the bathroom stall doors .
“Earlier this year, [not only did we post the integrity violation posters, the school staff] also uploaded a video on ION about the integrity violation process. Today, we’ll show it to you again.” Ms. Gravitte said.

After the video, online FAQs submitted by the student body were answered by Ms. Gravitte to confirm any questions and concerns. One of the anonymous freshmen asked if the increased awareness of the integrity violation review process was because of the recent rise in cheating incidents.

“[The raising awareness of integrity violations] was put together last summer simply because the school felt it would be helpful to the community,” Ms. Gravitte said. “With the current rise… it’s a perfect time to teach students this subject.”

Many students found the lecture to be very helpful because it seemed to clear up all the questions.

“It was a good effort on the part of the administration to eliminate a large cheating problem in the school,” sophomore Natasha Rao said. “ I’ve heard of groups of people who cheat on many things regularly and it’s unfair to people who do honest work.”

However, although some understood the reasoning behind this school wide lecture on integrity violations, other participants weren’t as quick to initially see the message conveyed in the lecture.

“The lecture [itself was uneventful], but it got the point across,” freshman Sarah Huang said. “With matters as serious as this, it only makes sense for every student to listen to the lecture.”

Jefferson has a high reputation as a high school. The school staff members work hard to ensure all students are aware of the process of integrity violation review in order to minimize cheating cases.

“The new assistant principal Mr. Grosicki seems truly passionate about this problem,” Rao said. “I am confident that his involvement and the stricter policy will bring about a significant decrease in cheating.”