SAT, ACT cheaters get off easy

LOS ANGELES, July 14 (UPI) -- A group of Los Angeles students suspected of cheating on college entrance exams will suffer few consequences if found guilty, experts say.

The students are suspected of cheating on the ACT college entrance exam by paying a former student, who used fraudulent identification, to take the tests, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

If the students are found to have cheated their scores could be canceled, by neither their high school nor colleges will be notified.

The ACT and the College Board, which owns the rival SAT test, have internal policies to keep testing irregularities confidential.

"We don't tell schools or anyone else; we simply cancel the score," said ACT spokesman Ed Colby. "What we're trying to do is make sure the scores that we send to colleges are valid. It's not our intention to go around

punishing students who make mistakes or who've done something they shouldn't have done."

Critics say the policies let cheaters off easy.

"What they're basically saying is 'Try it. You have nothing to lose.' Why not say to someone who robbed a 7-Eleven, 'Please give back the merchandise or pay for it, but we don't want you to feel bad about stealing,'" said Michael Josephson, president of the Los Angeles-based Josephson Institute of Ethics.