Should Punishments for Cheating be harsher?

When a student cheats in school, it is most likely because of a lack of studying. Punishing a student for cheating will probably lead to this student feeling guilt, regret, and not cheating again. However, this does not happen if the punishment is too soft and doesn't give the student a long-lasting impression. According to surveys, "in between 80 and 95 percent of high school students admitted to cheating at least once in the past year and 75 percent or more admitted to cheating four or more times" (Walker, Neatoday.org, 2012). If 95% of students are cheating, then the school must be doing something wrong. It is important for students to learn in school, and part of learning is failure.

When it comes to punishing students for children, I do not think the current punishments for cheating should be harsher, but part of me thinks that they should not be as harsh. Some punishments, like spanking, do not work, period. Studies have been made on how being spanked affects a child, and it actually does more harm than good. "A new analysis of two decades of research on the long-term effects of physical punishment in children concludes that spanking doesn’t work and can actually wreak havoc on kids’ long-term development," (Rochman, healthland.time.com, 2012). However, I am not saying that punishments should be removed completely. Without any punishments, there will be an incomprehensible rise in cheating, and nobody would learn anything.

I think that cheating punishments should not be as harsh for multiple reasons. One reason is that many punishments that are already in effect could ruin a student's life instead of doing what it should actually do. Some students have been punished so harshly for cheating that they are no longer able to get any college to accept them. This, in a way, can effectively ruin the life a student and their family has planned out in front of them. Punishments should not exist to ruin lives, but to reform them. A punishment should just be something to scare a student to not cheat again, and harsher punishments should only be used upon repeated offenders.