Kat,

that is so bad. How big of a dipshit is she to cheat on an SAT? Those Long Island kids did that last year and they were in deep shit.

This is the first time I've actually sat down to write about all of this. Partly because I've been living it and just trying to exist above the fray.

One of the kids started in January. He had dropped out of school for 2ish years. When he walked into AP, I was wary. I asked him the last three books he had read and we had a great discussion about Cormac McCarthy's The Road. He's a wonderful, bright person with a mind designed for college. He wasn't going to graduate because of his crazy transcript, but we came up with an independent study for him and he read 5 books in a month (The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, Botany of Desire, Thinking Fast and Slow, Hope in the Unseen and Outliers -- all nonfiction for a nonfiction course) and we had great exchanges via a composition book on what he read.

I'm so excited that he's graduating.

le nubian, the best?

AMAZING that they did all of that. But I guess the CB only has one thing to sell and that's the validity of their test scores.

So they ran an analysis on everyone around her and found a kid with a matching book and score.

Wait, how does that even work? Isn't the SAT paranoid about cheating?

I have an hour-and-a-half teleconference coming up. I'm going to need some entertaining.

Kat - I'd go because it is important to the others who requested you. She is a con and she will try and con for the rest of her life. shame on everyone who passed her along the way.

Because I am petty I would be tempted to say something to her when on stage with her.

Good grief, Kat. Whether you choose to go to graduation or not will not change this kid's chances for success. Her inability to take responsibility for her choices isn't going to turn around overnight. If possible try and make your decision with complete disregard for her presence. (unless you might pop her in the jaw, in which case maybe pass) Also, I am sorry. I hope you can focus on your accomplishments and accept the things over which you have no influence.

Or walk off the stage when she gets up there.

But I guess the CB only has one thing to sell and that's the validity of their test scores.

That's true.

Dana, there are about 8 randomized test forms. When proctors give the test, they submit a seating chart with the book serial numbers and how the books were handed out and which desk received which book. It's pretty easy to have kids near each other with the same form.

Or walk off the stage when she gets up there.

Oh, I like this idea!

Oh, Kat, what a mess!

I don't understand, though: if she's not getting a diploma at graduation, what will you be handing her? A blank piece of paper?