High-school students in the US regularly lie and cheat, and they sometimes turn up for class drunk, according to a "teen character" study released last week.

The annual study was undertaken by the Joseph and Edna Josephson Institute of Ethics. Some 8,600 students were surveyed, and 92 per cent claimed to have lied to a parent and 78 per cent to have lied to a teacher in the previous year. Seven students out of 10 admitted to cheating in a test. One in four said they would lie in order to get a job, while one in six said they had shown up for class drunk at least once in the last year. Forty-seven per cent said they could get a gun if they wanted one. Michael Josephson, president of the institute, said parents, teachers and coaches had to pay attention to what he described as "a hole in the moral ozone" as far as some students were concerned.