Equality and fairness are foreign to the corrupt

Maya Amador, Commentary Editor

The words ‘celebrity’ and ‘scandal’ seem to go hand in hand. Usually these scandals are along the lines of cheating and heartbreak but recently a new type of scandal has been brought to the forefront. Corruption. We all know that even the B-List celebrities make quite the pretty penny. With money comes power, so why not use that power to your advantage?

Any high school student would kill for extra time on their SAT. Test taking can put an immense amount of pressure on students, this can cause them to perform poorly when the it comes time to actually take the test.

For someone to use their money to buy themselves essentially a personal helper for the most important test you will take in high school is one of the most selfish and unfair things I’ve ever heard.

Actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman thought nothing of it when it was time to send their children off to college. The actresses are just two of the 50 people who were caught in what is being called the biggest college admission scandal in history.

USC is famous college in Los Angeles with a very notable alumni such as Neil Armstrong and Will Ferrell. USC is also the school Lori Loughlin bribed her daughter, Olivia Jade, into. She paid William Rock Singer, CEO of a college admission prep company called The Key, $500,000 to disguise her daughter as a recruit to the USC crew team, which she has never competed in.

During the week the scandal broke, a clip of Jade talking about college surfaced. In the clip she talks about not caring for a higher education and wanting to go to college mainly for the parties. This type of attitude being broadcast to a young audience could give kids a twisted view of college.

I assume after growing up with that much privilege and essentially having everything handed to you, it would be difficult to learn how to be independent. But taking away someone’s deserved spot in what is possibly the college of their dreams seems beyond selfish.

At Bowie, I hear constantly about people’s woes when it comes to testing. Huffman must have had flashbacks to the pressure to pass when it came time for her daughter to take the SAT. Huffman paid $15,000 to Singer to give her daughter additional time and have someone correct answers on her test.

Constantly allowing the rich to get away with blatant crimes will only further an unfair system. We need to encourage government officials to makes some changes in order to ensure balance in our society.

Being able to pay away any issue they have when the rest of world struggles to pay their bills every month teaches no responsibility.