Plagiarism

Sometimes trying to be a good friend can get you in trouble, and I learned this the hard way. It was my sophomore year and my friend had been a little lackadaisical with his work in FLiP class. Mine was already finished and he had asked if I could help him, but I had a lot of work to do so I did what any friend would do: I sent him my work (Sorry Mr. Young. I listened to your presentation, I swear). I told him to look through mine to get an idea of how to write his own and I thought that’s what he would do. Boy, was I wrong.

I remember getting called to the office and thinking I just had to pick something up or maybe I’d lost something, but when Mr. Aliberti called me into his office, to say I was nervous would be an understatement. I’ve never been one of those kids who made a trip to the principles office every other day, I don’t even think I had been in there before that day. He sat us down at the table in his office and made a bit of small talk before he finally told me why I was there. Apparently, when I sent my friend my slide show, not only did he copy it, he sent my exact slide show. It still had my name! Instead of being angry though, I laughed. A lot. The thought of him passing in my work without changing a single thing was hilarious to me. Even Mr. Aliberti chuckled a bit.

Luckily, it was pretty clear to Mr. Aliberti that I wasn’t trying to help him cheat. I was trying to be a good friend and it clearly backfired. Needless to say, I won’t be sending anyone my work again. Being called down to the principle’s office once was more than enough for me.

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