a lesson in honesty

I got a call last week from Cooper. In a trembling voice he confessed that he had cheated on a test. He had wanted so badly to get straight A's that he looked in the book for answers during a social studies exam. His consequence was lunch detention, but his parents requested that he have lunch detention, after school detention and offer a verbal apology to his teacher and fellow ASB leaders. Cooper's mean parents told the principal that his punishment could not be harsh enough. It was a sad week. Cooper was solemn , repentant and remorseful. In tears he told me that his teacher stopped calling him by his first name and refers to him as "Mr Lundberg", because she has lost respect for him. By Thursday his teacher couldn't take it anymore and asked for his detention to be lifted. Both Cooper's parents and teachers felt sure that he had learned his lesson. Cooper learned a great lesson in both justice and mercy and that it is never to late to make a good choice.