MY HS Principle Plagiarizes!!!
 

Ok, this is/was my high school. Check it out, and see if you can BELIEVE IT!!! THIS WAS MY HIGH SCHOOL! I WAS PRINCIPLED BY HIM!!!!
From the Chicago Tribune.... http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...tory?track=rss
<<shakes head>> Are you kidding me? The pledge of our school district 203 includes stressing never plagiarizing. Holy shit dude.

Edit: What a bunch of fucking posers at the top of our administration! No respect for my school district...

"What a bunch of fucking posers at the top of our administration! No respect for my school district..."

It doesn't get any better as you move into the working world. Politicians are masters at it.

Public education. No better than private.

Question - would he have accepted this excuse from a student? No? Then he deserves to have the book thrown at him (figuratively speaking). Mistakes are understandable, an excuse that goes into more than one sentence is not.

I think there's something of a difference between a student plagiarising someone else's work, passing it off as their own and getting graded on it.....and someone swping a few words to use in a speech. Not saying the guy shouldn't have cited his source, but the two really aren't the same thing.

(bolding mine)
And it was uncredited at the time of the speech, effectively passing it off as his own.
Unfair if he holds students to a higher standard. I doubt he would accept it in a speech by a student.

He was probably standing at a podium, where the audience couldn't see his foot notes.

He swiped a few words from a colleague....and forgot to call. I really don't see the big deal. My bosses have always used my stuff with wild abandon. I don't give a crap. At least he didn't make the teacher write it for him.

People seem to be seeing it as a naive student when it's really a co-worker, ex-alumni. I think he got really busy and made a huge gaffe. oops. Forgot to credit the writer. There are ways to apologize for this without making a big stink.....I mean come on...it's a high school speech......He wasn't going to have it printed and put his name on it.....

Of course don't rely on me for my opinion. I rip things left and right. Not writing, but I do think about it as I Print Screen, capture, then alter or not.

Really? You guys don't see the big deal? I dunno but my school district stressed so much APA, MLA formatting of citation so you wouldn't plagiarize. That's why I feel it is so incredulous that our principle did it--to a faculty member who was in the crowd at the ceremony.

At the University of Illinois plagiarizing leads to a minimum of a 0 on the assignment/test. The professor can even turn the plagiarism of the student into a failure of the course, or even expulsion from the university-----On the FIRST offense! It is all based upon w/e the prof wants.
I guess that's why plagiarism is such a big deal to me...

If he was any sort of public speaker with any ability to think on his feet, why could he not have used the phrase, "and in the most eloquent words of one of our former students and now valued colleague..." or some such thing.

That came to my mind immediately. Why not his? Then there would have been no issues of plagiarism what so ever.

The point is not that he did not call the original author. The point is that he gave a speech without informing the audience of what he was quoting. Look at freshnesschronic's topmost post. He plagiarized the Chicago Tribune because he did not call them? Of course not. He told us which paragraphs come from the Tribune. The principle's excuses forget to mention what his real mistake was - not crediting those quotes when he used them.

Stealing another’s work is normal. We all do it. But then we credit the original author when we 'borrow' their work. That is also normal and expected. Calling the author to ask permission is neither done nor necessary.

Oh, do let's spell "principal" correctly -- while understanding the principle of the thing!

Ah, the technicalities. I didn't even notice and I bet half the others posting didn't either.

Good one Ali, 'tis true. But I think it was a dumb gaffe. Certainly he expected that person to be there. I don't think he was trying a sneaky plagiarism.

I think it is just as the article says, and "plagiarism" was added. And if it is just as the article says, I'm not sure why it's an article. It really is tough to find news in small town, Illinois.

Actually Naperville is the 3rd largest city in Illinois, next to Chicago and Aurora.... We're breaching 160K.

you've got to be the only person i've ever met who is proud of naperville. not that naperville is all bad, it just seems you're really proud of the joint.

I'm sorry fresh, I don't see 160K as much anymore. I've lived in small town Illinois (several), and I do know that news coming out of the high schools is big news there. The quarterbacks of the High School teams are also big news, as they are posted upon entering and leaving the towns. I also visited champaign during high school choir and soccer championships. We called it "cham-plain". lol sorry...

Chicago I'm afraid, cannot really be likened to the rest of Illinois in sophistication and in numbers. Which is why my friends from that state left places like that and went on in to Chicago and St. Louis after leaving High School or the University.

I've lived in small and large places fresh, and I will tell you, that small town is also an attitude that people carry, outside of the qualifiers and suspicious lack of real numbers that you also cited.

Chicago: somewhere around 2,000,000.
Aurora: somewhere around 170,000
Naperville: somewhere around 140,000 (according to city data)

Being the 3rd largest in a state of 12 mil. does not make you large. It also depends on how the population is dispersed.

But again, I thought Colorado Springs was a small town (to medium)when I lived there, and it was at 350 or 400,000.

Sorry to say it's a small town. But it's a small town. It's not exactly "city" material for those of us who have lived outside of the townships, and are in, or have lived in large cities in the united states and throughout the world. You might be surprised how small it is when you go elsewhere.

Give the guy a break ffs. I'm pretty sure he was just pointing out the town doesn't have a population of 1000 or so.

Now if I said the place I'm moving to is a small town it'd be pretty close to correct. There's only 650 people living there. In fact, it's no longer considered a township in its own right. It's classed as a suburb of the Gold Coast. It's not like the goldie though. That's almost a metropolis. Jacobs Well is definitely a small town.

So, 160,000 seems like a pretty large town to me.

Yes you would be right. That is small. lol!

I already pointed out at the tail-end of my post that it is perspectivist.

Don't placate him, he's a country bumpkin. :stickpoke

According to this, it's 4th largest. It is also considered a 'burb of Chicago which to me makes it a 'burb of Chicago...not a city. Anyhoo, this response is not plagiarized. ;)


-wikipedia

I saw the article on this and other follow up articles.
I think the point is how is the school district there supposed to uphold its regulations and principles for its students. The student could say "my principal plagiarizes, why are you punishing me for this?" It is hypocrisy for a school system that seems to pledge academic integrity to let a high standing official not be condoned. I assume there is very harsh punishments for students who plagiarize. And it sounded like the superintendent was OK with the apology, and wanted the whole thing to blow over. No, sorry, it's not that easy. The students, the parents, and the whole community I assume would lose trust in the public education process. I know I would.

Plagiarizing is a form of cheating. What kind of message is that sending to the students? And don't compensate with "oh but everyone cheats in the real world" because this is the educational process. It's one of the prime places kids learn their morals and values; through schooling.

The article said he apologized and made a mistake. Yeah, you did, a pretty huge one that threatens the integrity of the whole school district in your area, so let's hurry up and fire your ass because of it.

A Chicago Tribune Online Blog by Eric Zorn. http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news...?cid=116565692

I like teachable moments. Most offenders don't care to learn, but it's a good moment, just the same.

Nice. Not only did the principal plagiarize his speech at the graduation ceremony, it turns out the valedictorian did too.

Teachable moment is right. Maybe not Caudill and Su -- but others.

GODDAMNIT my school is gaining so much media attention and its rep is going down the crapper. There is absolutely NO REASON to plagiarize a Valedictorian speech which is only for the AUDIENCE not about a grade, getting into a school, or earning an award. HOLY SHIT what a dumbfuck.
Sorry, I'm pissed at how incredibly retarded the past graduation at my old high school has turned out.

Btw, the rumor is got rejected from Johns Hopkins and is attending the local community college for this...Stupid fuck. I took chemistry with him sophomore year when he was a freshman. How do stupid shits like this get to be valedictorian? Motherfucker...

do you know how much being valedictorian will mean 5 years after graduation? we're talking high school, not harvard, get over it.

Surely that's what mitigates it. In your shoes, I'd be a damn sight more annoyed had he plagiarised in order to get better grades and get onto college courses that other students had worked hard to gain.

Without wanting to put words into Fresh's mouth I think his point is that plagiarism is such a big issue in the environment that this Principal teaches, how could he possibly risk the accusation for something that otherwise wouldn't even be heard outside of the school. It shows he didn't have the scholastic ideal at heart.

[Brit ref] It's like Gordon Ramsey submitting a Tesco cake to a WI competition.[/Brit ref] It calls into question everything els ehe has said and produced.

Does it matter? It's the principle of things.
The whole act of plagiarism. Unnecessary. This thing could have all been avoided if they just wrote their speeches. Personal speeches, as shitty as they may come, are far better than a plagiarized speech that is caught. He'd still be principal, and the kid would be attending Johns Hopkins.

Yes high school means nothing after you reach college. But they still fucked up, big time.

It means having a lot more cash in your pocket. Being valedictorian, at least at my kids' school, means you are number one in your class. Depending on the reputation and size of the school, many colleges give a full ride academic scholarship for that.

Unless, of course, you screw it up at the last minute.

So what? It doesn't affect you... they'll ask if you have a HS diploma, they don't give a shit which one.

fresh, I think this would affect you more had you only just left the school. As it is your college career is already underway. What happens at your old school can't affect that. Once you progress to the next stage, what people will ask about is how you did in college, they really won't care about your highschool.

I know it doesn't affect me at all.
Grant me opinion, thanks.

Oh for fucks sake. You expressed concern about how this school is being viewed in the press and I offered what I hoped was some reassurance on that. Go suck on your opinions.

Ite, my bad.

*smiles*

Aaaah. It's just close to home for fresh. Like I said before, any news out there, is big news.....

I doubt the school was big talk nationally before and after.....Don't worry fresh, there are lots of things going on in the world. The reputation of your school actually is pretty good if that is the worst of it's problems. That article is probably better press than you think. It doesn't say a word about the drop outs, junkies, gang members, weapons, killings, shootings, or regular violence. Some people swiped some literature. On the "bad press for schools" spectrum, your old school still looks stellar.
:)