Apodaca: CdM needs more than a conviction to move on from scandal

It would be nice to write that last week’s guilty plea and sentencing of former tutor Timothy Lance Lai closed the book on Corona del Mar High’s notorious computer hacking and cheating scandal, allowing the school to move on with dignity and restore its tattered reputation.

It would be nice, but misguided. Too many unanswered — or unanswerable — questions remain and far too many raw feelings linger for there to be any sense of closure regarding this sordid affair.

“Are you going to write about this? You should write about this.” That’s the plea I’ve heard from many parents and others as I’ve circulated throughout the community in the past few days.

They are disappointed, they tell me, that Lai didn’t receive a harsher sentence. They want to move on but feel frustrated that the brazen scheme to change grades could easily have gone undetected and unpunished, and they’re worried that all Corona del Mar High School students from here to eternity will be tainted by association.

To recap, Lai, accompanied by some students, allegedly broke into the school in 2013 to place a keylogger, a device that tracks keystrokes, on the back of a teacher’s computer to steal logins and passwords. Prosecutors contended he used the information to access the school’s network and change grades.

The scheme was uncovered after a teacher noticed some grades had been altered and alerted school administrators. An investigation by the Newport-Mesa Unified School District and Newport Beach police initially stalled but later resumed after it was discovered that a keylogger had been used. Students were pulled in for questioning and Lai was identified as the ringleader of the plot.

Eleven students were expelled from the school but Lai fled to South Korea before he could be questioned. He was arrested last October at Los Angeles International Airport as he was returning to the United States, allegedly carrying a USB device that held implicating evidence. He faced a possible sentence of more than 16 years, but after pleading guilty to 20 counts of computer access and fraud and one count of commercial burglary in Orange County Superior Court on Tuesday he was sentenced to one year in prison and five years of formal probation.

As for those pesky questions:

Was Lai’s sentence just?

Many people I’ve spoken with in the community believe he deserved more prison time, echoing the sentiments of Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Brock Zimmon. The Daily Pilot previously reported that Zimmon had offered Lai a three-year sentence in exchange for the guilty plea and considered the one-year sentence inadequate.

But many also felt gratified that Judge Robert Fitzgerald strongly reprimanded Lai for the “horrendous crime you committed,” asked the former tutor to apologize and issued a stern warning that a probation violation would lead to the maximum prison sentence.

Were the students involved treated fairly?

That question has split the Newport-Mesa community. Former district administrator Jane Garland resigned in protest over what she saw as inappropriate treatment of the students by other school officials.

Parents appear divided, with some expressing sympathy for the kids and their families, and others angry that the students didn’t receive harsher punishment or at least publicly express remorse. Some of the expelled students attended other Newport-Mesa schools for a time, while others went outside the district. Many eventually returned to Corona del Mar High, graduated, and are college bound.

Were more students involved in this or other cheating schemes?

Possibly, even probably. Rumors and suspicions continue to abound about a broader cheating network but most of us can’t honestly say for certain that we know the full extent of this or any other academic dishonesty that transpires at CdM or other schools. Students I’ve spoken with seem to believe that cheating is commonplace, although not necessarily in such an extreme and coordinated way as in Lai’s case.

“What the heck is going on down there?”

That’s the question I received from my brother, who, like many people outside the area had heard the news reports about the cheating scandal, the so-called Prom Draft, and other CdM-centered imbroglios.

I hardly knew how to reply to that, but there’s no doubt there’s a certain attitude directed specifically toward the high school that is grounded in the idea that the school is awash with amoral, over privileged kids who would gleefully drive their luxury cars into the pool if it would buy them an “A.”

To some people, the cheating scandal was merely confirmation of their already unflattering view of the school and its students. It seems almost futile to point out that there are many decent, stand-up kids at the school who work hard, don’t cheat and don’t expect preferential treatment.

Will Corona del Mar High School ever fully recover from the Lai cheating case?

That question has to be on Principal Kathy Scott’s mind as she tries to navigate the school into what she undoubtedly hopes will be a boring post-scandal future. I had to feel for Scott, who apparently unloaded some of her frustration in a statement she read to the court before the sentencing in which she spoke of “lives shaken” by Lai’s betrayal.

“This damaged the academic integrity of CdM and devalued the perception of the CdM diploma,” she said.

Will that damage be forgotten by anyone any time soon?

Oh no, not a chance.

PATRICE APODACA is a former Newport-Mesa public school parent and former Los Angeles Times staff writer. She lives in Newport Beach.