Metro

Stuy cheat slap

The city is upping the punishment for 66 of its smartest high school kids who were caught in a massive cellphone cheating ring in June — after they had been initially let off with wrist slaps.

Parents at Stuvyesant HS in Battery Park City were informed yesterday that the students now face suspensions of up to five days for their involvement in the cheating on Regents exams.

This summer, after a preliminary investigation by the city’s Department of Education, only six of 71 students who exchanged texts and e-mails of test answers were told they would be suspended.

The rest were told they would only lose some of their senior privileges, like the right to join certain clubs or leave campus for lunch.

City officials said the increased punishment stemmed from additional evidence that was unearthed over the summer.

They declined to specify the nature of the evidence.

The elite public school’s longtime principal, Stanley Teitel, announced his retirement after the scandal came to light and during a related DOE investigation into the school’s handling of the cheating.

That investigation is also ongoing, officials said.

Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott’s office announced this summer that a former city principal and administrator — and Stuyvesant parent — Jie Zhang would take over as principal this school year.

“As we said at the start of this investigation, we have zero tolerance for cheating or academic dishonesty of any kind, and the students involved in this incident will now face disciplinary action,” said Walcott. “I want to thank Principal Zhang for her assistance and for the steps she has already taken to restore academic integrity.”

Indeed, within days of taking the helm of a school that for years had a troubling reputation for student cheating, Zhang has made it clear that there’s a new sheriff in town.

She’s requiring students and parents to sign an academic honesty policy — which calls cheating “a divisive and destructive force within a school community.”

Zhang also told parents in a letter sent home that she is considering creating an Honor Code, which she says “would be a public sign of our commitment to uphold academic integrity at Stuyvesant High School.”

And in the two first school days, administrators have already confiscated 17 cellphones — which are technically banned from city public schools but are often tacitly permitted inside schools without metal detectors.

Parents are required to come to the school to retrieve confiscated phones.

“We will not tolerate any acts of academic dishonesty,” Zhang wrote in the letter. “Such acts undermine the reputation of this school and hurt our students individually and collectively.”

yoav.gonen@nypost.com