James Glover II / Star staff Garrett Aries of Agoura High School listens as Berci Benedek, right, discusses ethics scenarios Tuesday during a conference for high school students at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley. talks through ethical questions during a small group ethics discussion that took place at the Reagan Library and was sponsered by the Rotary Club of Westlake Village.

The question of applying ethical standards became more than theory when students from five area high schools convened for the ninth annual Homer Dickerson Youth Ethics Conference.

Students from Oak Park, Oaks Christian, Westlake, Agoura and Calabasas high schools showed up at 7 a.m. Tuesday at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley for an eggs-and-potatoes buffet. Then they were given something more to chew on: Just what would they do under certain circumstances?

The Rotary Club of Westlake Village hosted the event with keynote speaker Lance Orozco, award-winning news reporter with KCLU-FM national public radio station for Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

"Ethics is about right or wrong," Orozco said. "But it's more than that," he said. It's holding yourself to a higher standard. He said every day we use ethics in making decisions. He quoted Ronald Reagan saying, "There is no easy answer, but there are simple answers. We must do what is morally right."

Using Orozco's comments as a springboard, about 100 students split into small groups to discuss one of three scenarios, preassigned.

Scenario A was about a model student whose online postings declared quite the opposite. Scenario B was about a disoriented student who arrived late at night at a friend's house and pleaded to stay overnight without letting parents know of her whereabouts; the visitor showed cuts on her arms. Scenario C was about a student who saw cash dropped by a boy, and then saw a friend pocket the money instead of telling the boy.

One group zeroed in on the preassigned question about Scenario C, "Will your friendship disintegrate if you come forward and speak the truth?" The table mates unanimously agreed the money was "stolen."

Stephen Lamm of Agoura, 16, a junior at Oak Park High, said he would ask the friend why she took the money.

Jessica Kamzan of Agoura Hills, 16, a junior at Agoura High School, said she'd tell the friend what she observed and ask how she could pay it back.

James Peterson of Pacific Palisades, 18, a senior at Oaks Christian, said he would "definitely" confront the person and find out more.

Once discussion groups reconvened into a general assembly, the thorny points of reality and theory showed up as group representatives gave contrasting feedback, from "don't get involved" to "you owe it to your friend to tell the truth."

Students submitted the scenarios, with winners earning gift certificates funded by Sage Publications. Winners were: first, Rebecca Peters, Calabasas, $100; second, Alice Wang, Oak Park, $75; and Carl Chen, Oak Park, $50.