Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ralph Taylor resigned Monday from the DeKalb County, Ga., school district, Ty Tagami reports. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found Taylor had plagiarized “more than a third” of a 15-page report he’d produced for the district. Taylor was paid $10,000 for the report, which he completed as a consultant before joining what DeKalb’s superintendent Cheryl Atinkson called a “dream team.”
After the AJC discovered the plagiarism, Atkinson said the district would investigate, Tagami writes.
Two days later, the school district issued a statement from Taylor. It said he’d made an “inexcusable mistake” in not attributing portions of his report and vowed to relinquish his fee. But, he said in the statement, “I am not a plagiarist, and plagiarism was not my intent.”
A DeKalb schools official couldn’t confirm to Tagami whether Taylor had repaid his consulting fee. His job as an associate superintendent paid $117,000 per year.
Earlier this month, Chris Spence resigned as director of education for the Toronto District School Board after he was revealed as a serial plagiarist. He plagiarized in a Toronto Star op-ed, and reporters soon found other incidences of plagiarism, including his doctoral thesis.
Previously, in school plagiarism: Toronto school board director admits plagiarism in Toronto Star piece | Amid further reports of plagiarism, Toronto schools official resigns | Toronto Star purchases plagiarism-detection software.
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