Another breach of academic integrity in math classes

Elizabeth Peng, Editor-in-Chief|December 10, 2019

In the second incident of cheating in a Diamond Bar High School math class within the year, students in a junior-sophomore trigonometry/math analysis class took photos of tests and shared it with fellow students in November.

According to students familiar with the situation, half of Peter Kottke’s fifth period class distracted the substitute teacher by asking her questions while they gathered around the desk and blocked her view of the classroom. The other students searched through Kottke’s papers looking for the math test and ended up finding tests for a whole school year.

They took pictures of the tests with their phones and sent the Chapter 5 test pictures to a group chat. A student posted pictures of the test on her close friends Instagram story, and other students shared the pictures.

The school administration did not find about this cheating incident until the next day.

“So everyone thinks I would tell the teacher or the sub…To be frank with you, I wouldn’t do anything unless it affected me,” another student said. “I was just talking with a friend and then the teacher overheard.” He spoke to a reporter after requesting anonymity.

Kottke’s first and second period classes took the test, but it was changed for the teacher’s other classes later on that day. The GLCs later visited the classes to discuss cheating and honesty policies.

“We talked and then I told them what I knew because I did not have a choice, so I had [to],” the anonymous student said.

According to a student, GLCs went to the math class and checked students’ phones for pictures of the test.

The following week, all of Kottke’s students retook the Chapter 5 test that the teacher wrote when he returned to DBHS. Repeated attempts to speak with DBHS administrators about the incident were unsuccessful.

Last spring, the Bull’s Eye wrote a story about students who obtained answers for multiple DBHS teachers’ tests from tutoring centers. During that semester, several students cheated on a Calculus AB test using pictures of the test from Total Learning Education.