Even in High School

Marsha Goldwyn, 16, was taking the New York State Regents exam last January when she was discovered to have scratch paper filled with extensive notes.

Taken before Acting Principal Peter Lopiparo, she claimed that she had crammed for the exam and had scribbled down the notes during the first half-hour of the test period. Lopiparo refused to believe her, asked her to copy them as fast as she could. After 20 minutes, recalls Lopiparo, she was not even a quarter of the way, so he grilled her for two hours until, in tears and near hysteria, she gave him a written confession: "I cheated. Marsha Goldwyn." She retracted next day, but it was too late. She was given a zero as a cheater and was barred from any further Regents exams, a move that effectively blocked admission to college.

Helped by the New York Civil Liberties Union, she sued to reverse the decision, and Queens Supreme Court Justice Lester Holtzman ruled that the state's department of education had denied Marsha due process of law. Emphasizing the gravity of sanctions imposed on a Regents cheater, Judge Holtzman held that the education department should have held a hearing "at which she might defend herself with the assistance of counsel."

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