The link won't load up for me, at all, so I haven't been able to read the article. My comment, therefore, may be coming from left field.
Honor codes and honor concepts are preached from day one. A cadet or midshipman knows what is expected. Anyone who has trouble figuring out what "truth" he is going to us for an excuse has a problem, there is only one truth. During my cadet career I put two people up for honor offenses, both were recommended for disenrollment. One was retained and the other was recommended for disenrollment but the Commandant of Cadets but was retained by the admiral in the end. Do either of them belong? I doubt it. Will they get their commissions? Looks like it, but if I have to deal with them, I can't give them the automatic benefit of the doubt, they've already sacrificed their honor.
In addition to the two members I wrote up, I was also indirectly involved with a cadet who, while I was standing duty, snuck out and headed to a party for her birthday. When I checked her room, she had marked on her board that she was "in for the night", when in fact she had left. Her roommate brought it up to teammates when she figured it out, the girl was reported, and investigation began in which I had to give a statement, and she was recommended for disenrollment and then disenrolled.
Do I feel bad about any of this? No. It speaks to character, and if someone is so willing to sacrifice their honor to avoid punishment, are you sure they would not also be will to sacrifice your career, or the careers of your comrads?
I will admit there are some honor offense that arrise for other reasons. A poorly worded colaboration policy for a class for example, but blatant honor offenders do not deserve or belong in the position to lead or direct others.
I came close once. After an honors chemistry test we took, we received our tests and the instructor told us that we could make corrections and not to talk about it...well in the past we always compared to figure out what we did wrong (and normally we could not resubmit to get a better score). I turned to someone to ask a question about one of the questions I had got wrong, and she replied that I couldn't talk about it. I went to the instructor and told him that I had asked a question about one of the questions and wanted him to know. He said I could not get points back for that question, and I said Ok, I just wanted him to know, in case that would be considered an honor offense. Didn't mean for it to happen, and I took steps to ensure it was corrected.
I have trouble tolerating cadets or midshipman that apparently have no honor, but want people to look past that.
I make these comments, with no idea what the article said though, so if these comments are "out there", I apologize.