NEW YORK—Stuyvesant High School, the prestigious Manhattan school that boasts four Nobel Prize-winning alumni, expelled a student last week for contributing to mass cheating on the state Regents exams.
Nayeem Ahsan, a junior, allegedly used his phone to take pictures of pages from the Spanish, English, and physics exams— and distributed the answers to 50 students, the Daily News reported.
“That is just a bad idea,” Ethan, a sophomore at the school told The Epoch Times. “They don’t know what they are going to do yet with the kids he sent the messages to.”
Ethan said his teacher announced that Ahsan had the option of transferring to another school, but chose to be expelled.
Marge Feinberg, spokesperson of the city’s Department of Education confirmed that the allegation is under investigation. Stuyvesant High School declined to comment. 3
Students are split on how to view the cheating incident.
“This is something that happens in every high school, it is just that he happened to get caught. It has created a bad disgrace on our school,” a senior said.
Milo, a sophomore, said that Ahsan “deserves to get expelled. He was a multiple offender.”
The Regents are state exams that determine a student’s eligibility to graduate. A student needs at least a 65 on the English Regents exam to graduate high school in New York, and at least 75 in English, and 80 in math to avoid taking remedial courses in college.
Yet, some students felt that expulsion is an unfair punishment for cheating on the Regents exams. Stuyvesant High School students created a petition on change.org to protest Ahsan’s punishment, collecting 250 signatures. It stated that Ahsan is a valued member of the Stuyvesant community, who participated in activities such as photographing major school events.
“Nayeem does not deserve to have his future ripped out of his hands,” the petition states.
Although the Department of Education banned cellphones in New York City public schools in 2006, schools continue to struggle with enforcing the ban.
With reporting by Ben Chasteen.
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