In what may be a first-of-its-kind attempt to combat high-tech cheating, Stuyvesant HS has begun scanning kids with handheld metal detectors to seize hidden cellphones and other electronic gadgets prior to exams.
Teens at the elite public school in lower Manhattan said they were taken aback last week when administrators introduced wands — typically used to detect weapons, not phones — for a two-week period of Advanced Placement testing.
Students can earn college credits if they ace the AP exams.
“To wand students is absurd. If they can’t tell kids are using a cellphone to cheat, it’s their own fault,” said Aaron Ghitelman, 17, a senior who was scanned before two AP exams late last week. “Next thing, we’re going to have to take our shoes off like we’re going through the airport.”
Others agreed that stronger proctoring seemed like a better solution to tackle cheating than using the handheld wanding devices, which cost between $35 and $200 online.
“Wanding is pointless,” said Santi Slate, a 17-year-old junior who is scheduled to take an AP test today. “You can cheat in so many other ways.”
Even though cellphones and most electronic devices are barred from all city public schools, students say enforcement of the ban at most schools has been lax.
Earlier this school year, Stuyvesant HS principal Stanley Teitel tried to borrow the NYPD’s mobile metal detectors in a bid to deter electronic cheating during midterm exams.
Teitel, who declined comment, was rebuffed by officials — so now the school has taken matters into its own hands.
Administrators at the College Board — which runs the AP exam program — and national cheating and safety experts all said the school’s use of wands to ward off cheating was unprecedented.
“Wanding isn’t all that invasive,” said Dr. Teddi Fishman, director of the Center for Academic Integrity at Clemson University. “But you’re setting up an adversarial relationship where students try to get away with [cheating] and we try to stop them.”
She added that the tactic highlighted not just a cheating problem, but the problem of poor-quality exams — which tend to test memory rather than thinking skills.
“Anything that can be cheated on easily is usually too simplistic a test,” she said.
Still, some students and parents shrugged their shoulders when questioned about the new policy, saying they understood the motive behind it.
“I really don’t have a problem with it,” said Lee Levitt, recording secretary for the school’s parent association. “I think it’s to protect our students who are taking these tests honestly.”
Sophomore Ani Sefaj agreed.
“People do cheat with iPhones, so I was fine with the principle behind it,” she said.