The Dreaded P-Word

Imitation is the highest form of pissing me off. Quit stealing my content and violating my copyright. ~Jen T. Verbumessor

When I was in high school I made the mistake of taking a journalism class. It wasn't long into the semester that I realized I wasn't going to do well at the journalistic style of writing. But early on, the class was split up into groups and I landed in a group with a funny skater guy, the vice-president of our junior class, a dark and rather odd guy, and a funny girl who reminded me of Marty, the Pink Lady. Among these people, I was more than a quiet, bookish girl who never wore jeans. Each of us was smart, but I was the writer of the group and I began to feel a little more at peace with the class.

For some reason, though, the journalism teacher didn't like me. If it had been simply a personality conflict, I could let it go but I've never gotten over it. Because one day she accused me of plagiarism.

It was a one day assignment, due at the end of class. We were to write a brief and informative news story demonstrating a certain style. I was happy to be creating something and even appreciating the challenge of writing journalistically (just the facts, ma'am) while still getting across all the beautiful details I couldn't bear to leave out. On that day I wrote a story about a chemical fertilizer being sprayed over orange groves in Florida and the devastating harm it was doing to the state's bumblebee population. By the end of the story I had girl scouts in beanies skipping through the orange groves cleaning up the mounds of dead bumblebees. I named my chemical something like A-430 and had the girl scouts singing The Bumblebee Song as they went about the chore.

In short, it bordered on ridiculous, closing in on hyperbole.

The next school day I received back my paper with a bright red "F" across the top next to the word "Plagiarized." I was beyond mortified. The rest of my group was suitably outraged and patted me on the back as I tried to stifle tears and waited for my bright red blush to die down. I knew I'd have to confront the teacher with the mistake since there was no way my GPA was going to take a beating with an unearned "F." To this day I've never felt shame like those moments before I refuted the charges of plagiarism. Anyone who writes knows that this is the worst possible offense to be charged with. "Hack" is kinder than "Plagiarist."

I took the paper up to the teacher who tried to stare me down when I denied that I'd copied any work and continued on to remind her it was a paper written right in class. She changed my grade then, basing it on my writing alone. I don't remember what grade she gave me, only that I asked her to cross out the P-word and initial beside it so my parents wouldn't get upset.

Even when the incident was over I was still shaken and, truth to tell, I still get angry now when I think about it. To accuse someone of plagiarism is serious and should never, ever, ever be done without irrefutable evidence at hand. Someone is bound to ask me to name the teacher who did this and I'm telling you now, I won't do it. I did, at the very least, learn all about libel in that class.