Tomorrow when members of the Honor Board and the administration hold an all-school assembly they will reveal the most important decision of the Honor Board era, a decision that will influence the lasting reputation of the school.

Stealing and cheating have rocked the foundation of the school. Walking through the lunch area, one is inundated with speculation as to who will not be returning to the Harvard-Westlake community. In classes, teachers have questioned outright whether there is an actual community anymore. At a school where students leave their backpacks strewn across the school, teachers now feel the need to lock their offices and question every piece of “original” work.

The students who actively conspired to steal the Spanish and history midterms should be permanently expelled from Harvard-Westlake community and those who received the stolen materials should be suspended. The Honor Board and the administration need to send a loud and clear message that stealing and cheating is not to be tolerated at Harvard-Westlake. Under any circumstances.

It does not matter who the student is. When a student commits a criminal act as this group of sophomores did before January exams, it threatens the integrity, sanctity and reputation of the school. It puts every other student at an unfair disadvantage, a disadvantage that their $25,000 tuition didn’t pay for.

Teachers no longer feel comfortable trusting students alone in the classroom while taking a test or to do their own work. They will no longer give students the benefit of the doubt on their papers or their tests. And why should they?

The World and Europe II midterm, which was one of the stolen tests, had taken 10 years to write. Now, the history teachers need to start from scratch.

Urging students to simply follow the Honor Code is not enough. They need to make clear that students who steal testing materials in the future will be expelled because it is immoral and flat-out wrong, not just because it goes against the Honor Code.

Superior academics have always been the crown jewel of Harvard-Westlake’s reputation. By stealing these exams, the students involved have tainted the most precious and valued aspect of the school.

The last few weeks at Harvard-Westlake have been anything but peachy. Each campus has seen its share of crime, lies and loss.

Yet tomorrow at 8 a.m. in front of an assembled student body, the school community, the Honor Board and the administration have a chance to reverse the current trend. They have a chance to make a statement and restore the school’s glory.

They must wipe the taint off of the school’s esteemed academics. They must rid the school of the cancer that is currently infecting it. Tomorrow they must assert that this moment initiates the start of the school’s rebuilding.   ----By Michael Kaplan '08