Every senior is familiar with the pressures of graduation requirements. Sure, senior year can be stressful, but would someone really go as far as bribe another student into completing online credits for them? For several of last year’s seniors the answer was yes. The incidents at Garfield reflected a district-wide problem. What started as small deals between friends had escalated into an online cheating network, and prompted a new policy for online courses.

In a number of incidents last year, students, some rumored to be valedictorians, completed online coursed for others not meeting graduation requirements. As a direct result, no online courses will be accepted at Garfield for at least the first semester of this year, mirroring similar measures at Ballard and Roosevelt.

“Some of our students simply decided to have others take online courses for them,” says Principle Ted Howard. “And there was no way to see if they were logging on themselves.”

Howard said that certain students came up to him independently last year and confessed to having received money for the completion of online courses. Punitive actions were not taken against these students because “they had already gotten the credit and graduated. Everything was after the fact.”

What baffled most in this situation was the courses’ lack of accountability.

Parents especially complained because it was clear that the setup invited unethical behavior. Before, if a student wanted credit for a course, they could sign up, work and take the entire course online. This presents one obvious drawback.

“There was no way for them to find out if you were logging on yourself,” Howard says. “You could give your password to anyone you wanted.”

As well as a lack of accountability, there also arose the question of standards. Popular resources such as Brigham Young University and Digital Learning Commons were never actually inspected to certify that their courses met standards.

“What you had happening last year,” says Howard. “Were kids signing up for World History, or American Government. Then taking the class all in one day, all the tests in one day, get an A and get 0.5 credits.”

Similar problems have been discovered at other Seattle schools, such as Roosevelt and Ballard, where online courses are also on hold. The recent unchecked abuse of this resource has led to tight new restrictions by the state.

“What the state’s saying is, if you want to do this and be in compliance, the kid has to sign on in front of a teacher,” Howard says. “You type in your information all in front of a teacher.”

This presents a big problem for money-starved Garfield. In order to do this, Garfield would have to hire teachers to watch the student sign in and supervise. Garfield and many other schools in the district are struggling just to provide six periods for everyone. No school has the extra cash to spend on monitors for online courses.

A meeting of the Seattle Public high schools on August 16th discussed the issue. When it turned out similar problems with online courses were occurring at other high schools, the idea of temporary removal was quickly brought up.

Howard allowed students to sign up for health online until September 1.

“All high schools were recommended to put all online courses on hold,” says Howard. “They’re going to come out with a uniform policy for all the high schools that we follow.”

For the upcoming school year’s first semester, the options are now somewhat limited. Howard suggests night school, community college and appropriate Garfield classes to get credits filled. For now, online courses are not an option.