Reading this made me feel extremely sad because I am a person with a disability who has had to utilize the Accessibility Services at both Lethbridge College and BYU-Idaho. In order to use the services, I had to provide detailed documentation of my disability to the appropriate people and then sit down with them, discuss the documentation, and see what accomodations I would need to successfully get through my program. I managed to graduate from both schools with honest grades and honestly earned qualifications thanks to the assistance of the services designed for people with disabilities. I took advantage of extra time for tests and doing it in a separate space from everyone else because I get test anxiety, but I never took what I didn't need. I also never asked people for help unless I actually needed it.
My family has known all my life that I had a disability, but it took a while for it to get properly diagnosed. Even though I had one, my mother NEVER paid schools or other places offering opportunities to give me the best grades or other opportunities; she always insisted that I did my best in everything and got really, really pissed off when educators mocked my best as not being good enough. Even when people expected me to fail, I still gave everything my best effort and I improved gradually. I have beaten a lot of odds without the help of money to 'smooth the journey over' and I believe that money does not buy the happiness that comes with hard-earned success.
These rich people and their spoiled, entitled children exploited services that were meant for people who really do need help to succeed and they don't seem to have remorse. The parents didn't want to have to make the kids work for anything, as a lot of parents in this generation tend to do, and so they decided to teach the lesson of ethical ignorance instead. Some celebrities are very down to earth and they also teach their kids to be down to earth, to play by the rules, and not become dependent on the perks of stardom because that lifestyle can disappear at any moment. Those down to earth celebrities also teach their kids to create their own ways in the world and not become dependent on the stardoms that they did not earn themselves. Other celebrities, however, ride the wave and exploit whatever they can so they don't have to teach anyone anything. There are some celebrities worth seeing as role models, but those are becoming fewer and fewer as the years go on.
This cheating situation really shows that people who claim to care about people with disabilities are willing to throw all that care and compassion in the garbage if enough money speaks to them. Everyone involved in the cheating scandal should either go to jail or be forced to reimburse the programs they exploited, as a lot of people were hurt during the scandal. Many people who applied to schools on their own merits, including those who genuinely needed accessibility services, were cheated out of a good education because money spoke louder than integrity.
The scandal has been going on for a long time and many have been cheated or hurt by ethical ignorance. Is there a way to fix all of the damage? Probably not. However, everyone who has been caught needs to be punished to the fullest extent of the law and their children also need to take responsibility because they benefitted from ethical ignorance. It's not like the kids who benefitted didn't know what was going on; they probably thought that their parents' money would be enough and they could be carried by mommy and/or daddy forever. People who aren't taught self-reliance tend to fall harder and faster and it seems that the ride is finally over for the entitled.
