Cheaters never prosper

More than 25 percent -- repeat, more than one in four students -- believe that cheating is OK.

OK, specifically, depending on your personal beliefs.

Isn't that peachy?

FAST, a New York-based organization that advocates an emphasis on high academic standards and traditional liberal arts education, conducted the nationwide survey through the firm Zogby International last January. The margin of error for the survey is 3.2 percent.

Nearly 75 percent of the students questioned reported that cheating does occur on campus and a nearly identical number said that cheating is in fact always wrong.

If that's you, you're a loser.

Here's the deal: most of us bust our ass here. Mommy and Daddy don't give us money. We work full-time. We pay mortgage or rent. We raise families. We study until 4 a.m. and get up and 6. We do this day after day.

When I get an A, I deserve an A. I worked for it.

When you get an F, you deserved it. You did no work.

If you cheat to get a grade, you're stealing from me and all of us who work harder than you'll ever comprehend.

If you believe cheating is OK, even if you don't do it, you are condoning the thieves who steal from all of us.

And if you are a cheater, don't let us ever catch you.

Because we do believe in vigilante justice.

M.A. Anastasi is city editor of the Summer Forty-Niner.