At least 78 Air Force Academy cadets are accused of cheating on an online calculus test by getting help during the exam from a website, academy officials in Colorado say.

Academy officials said the cadets, mostly freshmen and a few sophomores, used an website math program meant to be used for homework, not the final exam.

Instructors in the academy's math department grew suspicious after a number of cadets who had passed previous tests failed the final exam, according to The Colorado Springs Gazette in Colorado Springs, Colo.

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"They had such a large number who had such poor scores, they said, 'How can this be?'" The Associated Press quoted Lt. Col. John Bryan, the academy's director of public affairs, as saying.

Most of the 78 cadets admitted to cheating on the test and have started a six-month remediation program, a type of academic probation, Bryan said.

Bryan told The Gazette that he did not know how many cadets have been ordered to take the remediation program. Some, he said, are still awaiting their turn before an honor board.

If a cadet denies cheating but academy officials determine otherwise, the cadet could be expelled, he said.

According to The Cadet Honor Code, a cadet "will not lie, steal, or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does." Penalties for violating the code range from probation to expulsion.

"It is possible to have disenrollments," Bryan told The Gazette.

Bryan said there was no evidence of collusion.

“Every case is individual, and every case is different," Bryan told The Gazette. "We want to give these kids a learning environment and a chance to succeed.”

Bryan said about 650 cadets took the exam on their own, outside the classroom and without supervision in late April, The Gazette reported.

The Associated Press reports past cheating scandals at the military school:

In 2007, 15 cadets were expelled and three resigned for cheating on a test of general knowledge about the Air Force, and 13 others were placed on probation. Cadets had forwarded test answers through an Internet social group and private computer messages, according to the academy.

In 2004, 69 cadets were questioned about cheating on a military etiquette test. Nineteen either acknowledged cheating or were found guilty by an honor board and were expelled or put on probation. Seven other cadets resigned, and 43 were cleared.

The Air Force Academy has more than 4,000 cadets.

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Seth Tooley has no problem talking up his alma mater -- The Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science in Bowling Green, Ky.

“It’s not your average high school,” said Tooley, 22, a 2008 graduate of the academy, a public high school for juniors and seniors based at Western Kentucky University.

Tooley now studies science at Western Kentucky but also helps the Gatton Academy by answering telephone calls to the front office. “The students here are learning on a higher level, a ground-breaking level, and that makes all the difference," he told msnbc.com. "When they say students are working on the latest research with leading experts in the field, it's true.”

Editors at Newsweek & The Daily Beast agree, naming The Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science as the best public high school in America.

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The annual rankings by Newsweek & The Daily Beast highlight the 1,000 public high schools nationwide that have proven to be the most effective in turning out college-ready graduates.

The Top 15 are:
1. The Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science in Kentucky, Bowling Green, Ky. 
2. The School for the Talented and Gifted Magnet, Dallas
3. Basis Scottsdale, Scottsdale, Ariz.
4. School of Science and Engineering Magnet, Dallas
5. Basis Tucson, Tucson, Ariz.
6. Jefferson County International Baccalaureate School, Birmingham, Ala.
7. Signature School, Evansville, Ind.
8. Stanton College Preparatory School, Jacksonville, Fla.
9. Suncoast Community, Riviera Beach, Fla.
10. Thomas Jefferson for Science and Technology, Alexandria, Va.
11. City Honors School at Fosdick-Masten Park, Buffalo, N.Y.
12. School for Advanced Studies, Miami 
13. Andrew Carnegie Vanguard, Houston
14. Uplift Education North Hills Preparatory School, Irving, Texas
15. Pine View School, Osprey, Fla.

For the complete list of 1,000 schools, and more educational insights, click here to go to thedailybeast.com/besthighschools.

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NEW YORK -- Two women who said they were raped while attending U.S. military academies sued military officials on Friday, accusing them of failing to address widespread problems of sexual assault at the elite schools. 

In the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, the two women said the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland and the Army's United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, tolerate sexual assault and discourage victims of attacks from reporting them.

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"Both institutions systematically and repeatedly ignore rampant sexual harassment," the lawsuit filed by Leah Marquet, 20, and Anne Kendzior, 22, stated. "Both institutions have a history of failing to prosecute and punish those students found to have sexually assaulted and raped their fellow students." 

In the lawsuit, Marquet, a former West Point cadet, said she was pressured by upperclassmen to get drunk and raped by a fellow student while she was intoxicated.

Lawsuit claims rape, misconduct at DC Marine Barracks

After she reported an assault, other students taunted her, the lawsuit said, and the school punished her for reporting the incident by forcing her to take out her attacker's trash. She quit West Point after becoming suicidal, the lawsuit said.

Kendzior, who entered the Naval Academy in 2008, said she was raped twice by two different fellow students, both times while she was drunk. Kendzior accused the Naval Academy of forcing her to drop out after she reported the rapes to an academy counselor.

The suit accused former Defense Secretary Robert Gates and four other military officials of failing to implement steps to fight sexual assaults at the schools.

The suit seeks an unspecified amount of monetary damages.

Panetta seeks to curb assaults
U.S. Navy Commander William Marks, a Naval Academy spokesman, declined comment on the lawsuit itself, but said the academy takes every report of alleged sexual assault "extremely seriously" and that its "sexual assault response and advocacy program is among the strongest in the nation." 

Officials at West Point said they could not comment on pending litigation, but that the school takes sexual harassment issues "very seriously."

"Every unrestricted report of sexual assault is thoroughly investigated, the results of the investigation are reviewed by legal experts and appropriate action taken," said Lt. Col. Sherri K. Reed, the academy's spokesperson.

Officials at the Pentagon had no immediate comment on the lawsuit.

Last month, eight other women filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington saying they were raped, assaulted or sexually harassed while in the military, and were retaliated against when they complained.

The latest lawsuit was filed less than a week after Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced new steps to curb thousands of sexual assaults a year within the military.

The case is Karley Leah Marquet v. Robert Gates et al, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 12-3117.

 

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