Letter: Principal’s defences don’t excuse plagiarism

Posted 8/24/15

To the editor:

I have become central to the plagiarism allegations against Principal Arruda, both for my submission on June 29 of a Request for Agenda Item to the School Committee, and for preparing a publicly available video with …

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Letter: Principal’s defences don’t excuse plagiarism

Posted

To the editor:

I have become central to the plagiarism allegations against Principal Arruda, both for my submission on June 29 of a Request for Agenda Item to the School Committee, and for preparing a publicly available video with annotations that came to the attention of the Sakonnet Times. Consequently, I feel it necessary to clarify some of the comments regarding plagiarism, both in letters to the Sakonnet Times as well as at the public hearing of August 18, 2015.

As my fellow US Naval Academy Alumnus, Robert Mushen, president, Little Compton Town Council knows, plagiarism is a violation of the Midshipmen's Honor Concept and is fraud1 . Plagiarism is simply the passing off of another's words or ideas as one's own.2 Period.

The defenses of Mr. Arruda at the public meeting suggested that “one time”, “a fun event”, “only a few words”, “importance of the message”, “absence of benefit” does not make for plagiarism when you use someone else's words.

None of these reasons excuse plagiarism. Faculty at Wilbur & McMahon, Portsmouth High School, or any reputable college or university would not accept these as valid reasons for a student using someone else's words without attribution.

Plagiarism is a moral and ethical failing – Attorney Sowa was correct in that there is no legal standard for plagiarism, but plagiarism may lead to copyright, patent, or trademark violation, which all have legal recourse. As I have learned from faculty at Roger Williams Law School (Mr. Sowa's alma mater), even online sources such as Wikipedia are copyrighted, often using the Creative Commons License, a form of copyright developed in part to accommodate the rise of electronic or digital media. In fact, each Wikipedia page includes, on the left, a link to properly cite the page, as well as guidelines for reuse 3.

In addition to filing the Request for Agenda Item with the School Committee, I also forwarded the document to the Superintendent Search Committee via Robert Mushen, expressing my concern about the integrity of the leadership at Wilbur & McMahon. I had attended the Search Committee meeting where the question pool for superintendent candidates was developed. There had been no questions regarding the role of supervision of direct reports, such as the principal. The plagiarism at the graduation made the function of supervision by the superintendent a critical issue.

Plagiarism by public officials, be they school principals, politicians, military officers, journalists, or authors is all too common. And it almost always results in some disciplinary action and often a penalty. Technology has made plagiarism easier with copy-and-paste, as it has also made discovering and documenting plagiarism quicker and more accurate. As a professor at a university, it is of great concern to me that possible students of mine may have the impression that a strong public defense, with a clapping uninformed audience, is enough to discharge and excuse responsibility for plagiarism.

You may view the video of the discussion segment of the School Committee meeting of August 18, 2015, at https://vimeo.com/136982135. This is copyrighted under a Creative Commons license that allows for sharing and copying with credit and denies modification or commercial uses; you may view it, share it, or link to it as suits your purposes.

Sincerely,

W. Brett McKenzie

Little Compton

Sources:

1 http://libguides.usna.edu/content.php?pid=344689&sid=2938313

2 http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/what-is-plagiarism/

3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reusing_Wikipedia_content

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