A school principal in the US has been suspended after being caught plagiarising another principal's work twice.
Stacie Bonnick, principal of Washington Technology Magnet School in Minnesota, published a letter in January, reflecting on the pandemic year in a school community newsletter.
The Pioneer Press reports this was not the first time she used the letter, she also sent it out to her staff in December.
One staff member was quick to question Bonnick's work, anonymously emailing the school board and The Pioneer Press raising the question as to if it was hers.
"Upon reading this it did not seem like her usual writing which is typically of poor academic quality. With a quick Google search I was able to determine this in fact was not her work and the entire thing was plagiarised from another principal in another state" they wrote.
An investigator from the school district’s human resources department organised a meeting with her and her supervisor, where she ultimately confessed to plagiarising the entire letter.
Bonnick was given a one-day suspension without pay on Feb. 5.
Greg Wilkey, principal of East Side Elementary in Chattanooga, Tennessee, wrote the moving piece "Schools are so much more than academics. Schools are places where people come to be loved, to feel safe, and to be nurtured. Educators provide more than teaching and learning. We are sources of stability and calm during the storms" the letter read.
Wilkey told The Pioneer Press he wasn't aware his work had been plagiarised "I am conflicted as to how I feel. On the one hand, I’m honoured that my words and my reflections resonated with someone enough to share them" he said.
"I do regret that the principal in question did not simply give the proper credit, but at the same time, I hold no ill will toward her."
