life Dr. Gerald Plecki and  his seven students did lose to Whitney Young High School at the  Regional Decathlon Championship but mysteriously won the State  Championship. Later the students were accused of cheating by the  State Decathlon Committee, the Department of Education, and Whitney  Young (which lost to Steinmetz at the competition). It was  eventually discovered that the students did cheat, although several  of the students to this day maintain that they did not.