Sometimes as a writer for Odyssey it's easy to feel like when you write articles, some of your Facebook friends read them and then they just disappear into a pit of nothingness. I learned recently this is not the case.
A few weeks ago, a high school student I have never met from Texas found me on facebook and messaged me saying she read an article I wrote titled "Stop Saying Respect Is Earned Not Given" (linked below) and really connected with it.
At first, I was very flattered, someone liked my article! Then I kept reading.
She said she liked my article so much, she took the idea and used it for a paper she is writing for school. She asked me to take my article off of the internet so she wouldn't get caught plagiarizing by her teacher.
What? I was so shocked that she would have the nerve to not just plagiarize my work, but then ask me to take down my work. Did she seriously think I would agree to this? I didn't respond. I thought that would be the end of it. I was wrong.
She found me on Venmo and sent me $10 which I returned to her. I couldn't believe she was trying to bribe me.
She then messaged me on Facebook again saying she was desperate because she had already turned the paper in and then that she would send me $50. She then tried to call me using Facebook messenger which I didn't even know was a thing.
At this point, I have blocked her on Facebook and Venmo but that wasn't enough. She found me on Instagram and slid into my DMs saying she would send me as much money I wanted.
Now I'm just wondering why she didn't just write her own paper with her own idea. I can't imagine paying upwards of $50 just to avoid writing a paper. And a high school paper at that. Trust me, they get much worse once you come to college.
During this whole fiasco, I was updating my colleagues in our UD community Odyssey group chat. A fellow writer did some serious sleuthing and found the name of this girl's high school along with the principal's email.
At this point in this story you should know two things about me:
1. I am a strong believer in academic integrity
2. I'm petty af
I'm not sure which of these two factors motivated my decision more but they both led me to write an email to the principal of her school explaining that I believed one of his students had committed academic dishonesty. We exchanged a few emails and he ensured me they were taking the matter very seriously and starting an investigation.
It was a whirlwind of a day dealing with all of this, but I'm glad that it seems this girl will learn her lesson.
Plagiarism is never okay. Cheating on a test is never okay. And you may fight me on this one but, copying homework is never okay.
Intellectual property is no different than physical property. It sucks a lot when someone steals it. I could even argue that having your intellectual property stolen is worse because I care a whole lot more about my thoughts, ideas and creations than I do about my material possessions.There's a reason that things like copyrights, trademarks and patents exist!
Even if you don't think you can, I promise everyone can come up with great ideas to write about! Something original is always better than something you copied. You learn by doing so even when you don't feel like it, write that essay!
