Sometimes Justice still triumphs

And in Jeffersonville, Indiana, admitted cheater Kristen Reno and her enabling mom, Pamela Scott, got that lesson driven home this morning as her graduating class walked across the stage to get their diplomas without her.

You see, Kristen decided to have one of her friends improperly change her grade for at least one class in the school computer. When this was found out, the student who made the changes was expelled, and the kids who'd had their grades changes--including Kristin--were still allowed to graduate but were barred from the graduation ceremonies.

Now normally, this would have been the end of it. Lesson learned. But this is the day of the Liberal, where everyone is entitled to everything. Kristen and her mom hired a lawyer and sued the Clark County School Board to force them to let her walk across the stage with all of the other kids who hadn't cheated.

Now Kristen had been given an alternative option. The school had told her that she could re-take the exam that she'd cheated on, but she refused. She apparently decided that she shouldn't have to do anything at all to atone for what she'd done, and her and her mom (there was no evidence of a father in this story...go figure) rushed out and filed a hurried lawsuit rather than accept the punishment or retake the test the honest way.

However, Judge Jerry Jacobi decided that the school board was within it's rights to set punishments for cheaters and otherwise administer the school system, and he denied her plea for special treatment. Personally, I think that she's lucky to even be allowed to graduate and that any diploma that she gets should have an asterisk on it, kind of like Barry Bonds' steroid-assisted home run record.

Hopefully Kristen shakes off this "poor little me" attitude and comes away with the understanding that cheating is wrong and when you try to fraudulently gain something that you don't deserve, you stand a good chance of being penalized.

How does that Honor Code go again? Oh yeah... "I will not lie, cheat or steal, or tolerate those who do." Kristen would do well to apply that to her life as she allegedly plans to attend Indiana University Southeast and become (are you ready for this?) an education counselor.

And here's hoping that mommy Pamela gets a wake-up smack to the head and quits coddling and enabling her kids. She certainly didn't do her brat any favors here when she taught her that doing wrong and getting caught just means that you hire a lawyer.

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