IS IT OK TO CHEAT at Kennesaw State University? Apparently so. That's the only conclusion that can be drawn from the sequence of events that have played out there in recent days.

Senior Jessica Colotl, who is in the country illegally, was stopped for a traffic violation while driving on campus without a valid U.S. driver's license and then gave false and misleading statements to KSU and Cobb police. We suspect that in most cases, such a string of law-breaking and half-truths would be grounds to be hauled in front of a school's Honors Court. But not at KSU. Just the opposite, in fact.

"This is great news for Ms. Colotl, her family and friends and for the KSU community," crowed President Dr. Dan Papp when her release from custody was announced on Wednesday. "We are especially thrilled she will be allowed to continue her studies here at KSU. We would also like to thank everyone who was involved, both on campus and within the larger community, in helping Ms. Colotl."

We understand that educators go into education because they like helping people and mentoring them, and Papp might well have been torn about what to do in this case. But the law is the law and must be upheld.

We wonder whether KSU would look so favorably on a student who cheated on a test or who forged his transcript? It appears that a precedent has now been set for "looking the other way."

The special treatment awarded Ms. Colotl is a slap in the face to Georgia taxpayers and their children who hope to someday attend college or get an advanced degree.

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WHEN STOPPED March 29, Colotl had an expired passport and no valid driver's license - although she had a Mexican one - despite reportedly having lived in this country since age 7. It is unclear whether she owned the vehicle or was an insured driver.

She was arrested by KSU police a day later and taken to the Cobb jail, where she gave booking officers a Duluth address as her residence. (Yet when an MDJ reporter visited that location, the person who answered the door said she had lived there five months but had yet to meet Ms. Colotl.)

The student was duly handed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and initially was given 20 days to leave the country. Then - after a full-court lobbying effort by Papp and the school's taxpayer-funded legal team - she was abruptly released on Wednesday and granted a one-year deferment by ICE during which to pursue her studies.

It probably comes as a surprise to most readers to learn that Georgia colleges and universities allow those in this country illegally to register as students, but it is the truth. As we are learning, our campuses are "sanctuaries" of a sort, where certain laws that apply elsewhere no longer apply.

Such students are not eligible for in-state tuition, tuition wavers or other state programs to defray their costs - although those on the left are trying to erase even that hindrance. And in some cases - like that of Ms. Colotl - they are, in fact, admitted as in-state students and charged tuition at the much lower in-state rate.

Some of Ms. Colotl's defenders on the MDJonline.com blog site and elsewhere also have suggested that racism is at work in the coverage of her predicament. As one put it, "If (she were) Polish or Swedish, no one would be flipping out about this."

Well, if this were the case of a Polish or Swedish student, they would almost certainly have come here legally, not illegally - and they and their supporters wouldn't have the gall to demand special rights. And you can be sure that if this were the case of an American student illegally in Mexico trying to get a college degree, she wouldn't be getting the kid gloves treatment.

The episode also is a reminder that people will do nearly anything to break into our country - and that you never hear of anyone desiring to break out of it.

Moreover, if a succession of presidents and Congress had not closed their eyes to the problems of illegal immigration, we wouldn't have an estimated 12 million to 20 million illegals living in this country with more on the way.

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WE CANNOT BLAME Ms. Colotl - who having apparently spent most of her life in this country, is probably more American than Mexican at this point, and to her credit, has many KSU friends willing to go to bat for her - for trying to get the best education she can. It is not her fault that she was brought here as a young girl by her parents, or that she was a bright enough student to be attractive to college administrators at KSU.

Colleges, after all, are merely trying to get the best possible students. But Georgia's institutions of higher learning were built and paid for by the tax dollars of our state's citizens. And how many bright Georgia young people are being denied enrollment in our colleges and universities because their slots were filled by those who are in our state and country illegally?

If one follows the logic of Ms. Colotl's supporters at KSU to its logical conclusion, our colleges should have an "open-doors" policy admitting anyone from anywhere in the world, as long as they can sneak past the border guards to get here and pass an entrance exam.

Yes, federal law requires that children who are in this country illegally receive a K-12 education, and though very costly for taxpayers, it is a justifiable approach. It is to no one's benefit to have a permanent class of completely uneducated people in this country illegally.

But higher education is different. Those in college are not minors dependent on their parents. If it is illegal for an adult to work in this country or reside here without the correct immigration documents, it should be illegal to study here as well. Georgia's policy that allows them to do so merely rewards illegal behavior and penalizes those who follow the rules in their own attempts to become citizens.

The Colotl case should serve as a wake-up call to lawmakers, college heads and the Board of Regents that entrance to our institutions of higher learning should go first and foremost to Georgians - and not those in our state illegally.