The news isn’t shocking although the California Firefighting Academy Cheating Scandal is just another of the many examples of the application of unethical behavior that we’ve come to expect. This is not really a post about firefighting, even though we admire firefighters for the job they do. It is a post about our society and how we relax rules to suit our sense of rules. The article appeared 
on FoxNews.com (December 07, 2015), and was entitled: “Accusations of cheating at California firefighting academy.” The scandal first appeared in the Sacramento Bee on December 6, 2015.
“Some of the cadets who would go on to fight California’s raging wildfires cheated on tests during their time at a fire training academy, and officials there let it happen…
‘They were going to pass everyone and I know that this is a safety issue. This is someone’s safety and life, and other people are depending on them,’ Shannon Browne (an instructor) told investigators during an interview in 2014, according to the newspaper…
Browne revealed that instructors at the Cal Fire academy in Ione told her to change scores, and removed questions that cadets couldn’t answer after the fact, the newspaper added. She reportedly suggested the academy should have changed its teaching methods instead of changing the results.’”
Other charges by Ms. Browne included the fact that the cadets passed copies of tests with correct answers around and that students were merely copying answers from one another to pass the exams.
This trend is not new. In my ethics blog I have repeatedly reported examples of cheating in all areas of our education system. What makes this particular case so frightening is that the cadets are not only charged with the responsibility for saving the lives of others but of safeguarding their own lives. Knowledge is very powerful for firefighters and for all first responders. What happens when cheating on exams is rampant? Worse, what does it say when some instructors actively advise cadets to cheat?
Shortcuts in the digital society
As an observer of ethics and ethical behavior. The widespread relaxing of standards while alarming, is not at all surprising. The trend has its roots and manifestations in many areas of our society. Some of these areas are seemingly unconnected from one another, but they share the willingness of students to take shortcuts rather than work for a result. However, it is unwise to blame the students because adults are all too willing to share in the process.
Some examples I can share with you include the so-called “Participation trophies,” where everyone wins; professors and administrators writing papers for student-athletes; professors being “persuaded” by department heads to change grades so that the school is not sued; rampant plagiarism of assignments; political and business scandals involving insider information, bribery, relaxing of quality standards and shoddy work.
The end result, unfortunately is that when standards are so relaxed so as to be non-existent, there are really no standards at all. Everything becomes a joke. Those that set expectations are often removed as trainers and instructors. In some cases, lives are lost be they the lives of those who were tested or who relied upon those tested. In other cases, products poison consumers or buildings collapse or investors were cheated.
The difference is ethics
Without a framework in place that demands ethical behavior, and ethical expectations of students, instructors, politicians or business people everything becomes relative – and ultimately lives are lost. Am I being melodramatic? Not at all.
Over the course of the past year, we have written many blogs where standards were often non-existent or where cheating was blatant. It extended from tainted peanut butter where QA controls were circumvented to student cheating scandals at our nation’s most prestigious universities. Along this unethical path, lives were lost, careers were dashed or people lost their life savings as a result of this arrogance.
Unless ethics training is made part of the organizational fabric of training, the results can be potentially catastrophic. As a society we must come to agreement as to whether standards have meaning or if “any rule goes.”
Were lives lost as the result of the Cal Fire academy? It is hard to say and it is not a question that can be answered within a simple framework. Cheating doesn’t immediately manifest itself; it can come years down the road. Why are we waiting to find out? It is much easier to set tougher ethical standards.
YOUR COMMENTS ARE WELCOME!
This article covers a cheating scandal that came to light within the California Firefighting academy. It highlights incidents where there has been cheating on written tests as students copied answers from a marked paper to ensure they get a passing mark.
Concerns are raised for a loss of a standardized framework, that there will be no ethical standards withheld and maintained, and that that can lead to dangerous and negligently trained firefighters which put lives at risk.
Another issue raised in the article is the shortcuts taken in training reflects the trend of the younger generation to not want to put in the hard yards and effort in order to achieve the qualifications they desire.
Firefighting is a practical job, and there are have been many arguments over the years for the value of experience as being far more important than classroom learning (What’s more important, qualifications or experience, 2014). This article presents a classic example of a case where instructors have told students how to pass tests in order to get the required paperwork out of the way, so they can begin the real and actually relevant on-the-job training that will benefit them in the real world. This argument is based on practicality; as how can a written classroom situation actually prepare a student for a frontline firefighting situation. In these days of Bureaucracy and red tape, it seems that there is becoming more and more required paperwork and formal documentation for little, if any benefit. A practical and experience based learning program that is done through practice, simulations and on-the-job training will be much more valuable to students wishing to learn this trade.
The article fails to mention how the lack of effort of willingness of the students to take shortcuts rather than work for a result within the written tests is actually carrying over into their training and academic focus for the other aspects of the firefighting training. The training detailed in the (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational outlook handbook: Firefighters, 2015) clearly states that there are multiple facets to the training, and the clearly stated important qualities of courage, communication and decision-making skills, coupled with physical strength and stamina are all qualities that are not able to be directly assessed in a written test environment. The article fails to qualify any proof that the students are lacking in willingness in these important areas.
Another issue is firefighting member numbers. California is a state that is constantly in a state of drought, devastating fires and also carries a huge reliance on fire protection for its massive food production industry. Firefighting is a necessity and is constantly on the lookout for members. The state of California is constantly employing around 4,000 inmates for a pittance of 1$ an hour to help bolster firefighting personnel numbers (Thousands of firefighters are inmates, 2015). This raises the issue; can they really afford to be turning away willing students who wish to become permanent firefighters over a written test that may not have much actual relevance on their ability to become a great asset to the firefighting community over time.
The use of inmates in such large numbers indicates the drastic need for personnel and can give us an understanding of why instructors are unwilling to fail students on the written tests and exams. The inmates selected as firefighters also undergo some basic training, (On the line: Inmate crews prep for the busy season, 2015) but it does not appear to be anywhere as near as classroom heavy as what the academy makes its graduates go through, this helps to strengthen the argument for the fact that the diversion from a standard framework is not actually costing lives and compromising safety, and if it was, why is there two standards for academy trained firefighters, and others for inmate fire crews?, The differing standards and relaxation of set written training are not having any effect on the ability of either prison inmates or academy trained members to become useful members of the firefighting community.
This article also highlights the issues with the written material and the relevance it has to the requirements of the job, particularly one where many inmate fire crews are being practically trained and deployed, and are as equally useful as their academy counterparts. When the written training has issues and if there are questions that no student can answer, then why haven’t they been trained in the material? There is definitely a place in the career development for exams and written learning, in which case the training material needs to be reviewed and changes made so the written material is relevant and has the appropriate training methods behind it.
From a utilitarian point of view, this practice is ethical as it is helping to maximize the number of potential firefighters available to the state of California, and helps the students as it gives them a chance to prove themselves whilst actually on the job. The greater good is being serviced here, which is the state of California, the drought and fire plagued state is badly in need of its firefighting members, and there has been no proof linked to any loss of life of firefighters or civilians due to any classroom based training inadequacies.
From a Kantian point of view, the practice is unethical, they are cheating, the academy is allowing them to do so and it seems quite black and white. The Kantian theory states; that the action can only be morally good if the principle behind it is right, and cheating is not a morally good principle. This alone cannot be used to condemn the actions of the firefighter’s academy, there needs to be a clear analysis of why they are cheating with the classroom learning. The utilitarian ethics view would show, that if there is a flawed system in place, and no solutions visible on the horizon, then the cheating is justified given the current economic and indeed harsh physical climate that Is making these measures Justified.
References
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (17-12-2015). Occupational Outlook Handbook: Firefighters. Retrieved from.http://www.bls.gov/ooh/protective-service/firefighters.htm#tab-4
Climate Progress. (13-8-2015). Thousands of Firefighters in California are inmates. Retrieved from.http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/08/13/3691283/inmates-are-fighting-californias-wildfires/
Inside CDCR. (16-05-2014). Inmate Firefighters train at Ishi Conservation Camp. Retrieved from.http://www.insidecdcr.ca.gov/2014/05/inmate-firefighters-participate-in-training-at-ishi-conservation-camp/
Totaljobs, Inside job. (17-02-2014). What’s more important, Qualifications or experience. Retrieved from.http://www.totaljobs.com/insidejob/whats-more-important-qualifications-or-experience/