Who needs to work hard in school or prep for SATs when you can just have your parents buy your way into the prestigious school of your dreams? Surely not the children of Lori Loughlin or Felicity Huffman.

Loughlin and Huffman are just two out of the dozens of rich parents recently charged by the U.S. government with cheating college admissions standards. The Justice Department has called this a multimillion-dollar scheme to gain admissions to top universities, reported NPR. These parents are suspected of paying money to ensure their children would score well on important tests such as the SAT or ACT, or having them depicted as top athletes.

William Rick Singer may be responsible for this scheme. Reportedly, 33 parents sent great sums of money to supposed charities run by Singer in return for these services, reported NPR. Singer not only acquired false test scores, but also aided the parents in staging pictures of their children taking part in certain sports. At times, Singer and his associates would even go as far as to use stock photos of athletes playing sports and photoshop the face of the child onto them, before sending the photos to universities, reported NPR.

Loughlin, Huffman, and many others could have allegedly paid Singer anywhere from $200,000 to $6.5 million to perform these services. These payments were disguised as donations to Singer’s charity, allowing his clients to deduct the payment from their federal income tax, reported NPR.

The charity most commonly donated to was the Key Worldwide Foundation (KWF). A non-profit created by Singer to serve as a supposed charity for students who have only known inner-city street life and the gang violence that surrounds it. Its stated mission is to “unlock the door to academic, social, personal and career success,” reported NPR. Unfortunately, this charity did fulfill its stated mission but not for the stated client. These individuals’ parents already had the ability and resources to help their children succeed in any way, yet they chose to do so in an illegal and immoral manner.

This news is heartbreaking to many hard working students that want nothing more than to get into the schools of their dreams. It is a shame that these hardworking individuals may never get a spot at their dream schools because they have been beat out by students whose parents have bought their way in.

Skylar Sheely, 16, a  junior at Cedar Cliff High School, is angry about what these celebrities have done. “I believe it’s unethical for celebrities to manipulate colleges with their privilege and money to buy a spot for their spoiled children who don’t even care about school.”

Sheely said she finds it ironic for Lori Loughlin to be acting in Hallmark movies and Fuller House, teaching younger generations about the importance of honesty and integrity when she isn’t even an honest person herself.

“If these celebrities have the money to pay for their children’s SAT and ACT scores to be falsified, why don’t they just use that money to pay for a tutor or prep classes for their kids.”

Skylar Sheely says the most awful part of this scandal is that, “Most of these kids only care about partying and going to football games, yet they are taking someone else’s spot who actually studied and put effort into their grades. That is just the most disrespectful thing anyone could do.”

John Gillespie, 18, of Cedar Cliff High School, said, “As a student, it’s disheartening to hear about this scandal, especially when you’re working as hard as possible and doing whatever you can to get into college.”

Gillespie finds this news of the scandal especially saddening as, “Hard work should pay off, but unfortunately there are always cases where certain privileged people are leaps and bounds ahead of the hardworking student.”

Devon Bertram, 17, said, “I think it’s really unfortunate that people with higher incomes used that to their advantage as a way to put their child into a better university.”

She said this money may give the children of these rich parents more access to more expensive universities, but it does not make it acceptable for them to cheat the system in any way.

“A student should be accepted to the college that is best for them based on their own merit and academic performance, not because they cheated their way in,” Bertram said.

Huffman, Loughlin, and Loughlin’s husband Mossimo Giannulli have faced arrest and await further trial at this time. 

Photos from wikipedia