More Blair Plagiarism

Not Jayson; Hornstine.

There was a story a while back about a high school senior, Blair Hornstine, who sucessfully sued to be named sole valedictorian of her graduating class. The dispute involved, in part, the fact that she only attended school part-time and had at-home tutors, a situation which the school had approved for medical reasons. Administrators claimed Hornstine did not face grading as rigorous as her classmates because of the different education she received. Hornstine's condition was characterized in various places as "chronic fatigue" and an "immune deficiency." Those who opposed the Hornstine's efforts, like this wing-nut, asserted that she was extraordinarily active in other extracirricular projects and thus not disabled. Hornstine's argument was that she had the highest GPA, as determined by the school itself, and that school was changing its policy retroactively to allow for multiple valedictorians.

My thought at the time was Hornstine was petty for trying to screw her classmate, but I didn't write about it because none of the articles I read had sufficient information for an intelligent assessment as to the impact of her claimed disability and whether or not she had abused the system, as her detractors claimed. (Plus, it was just another story about fucked-up rich kids with screwed priorities.)

Ms. Hornstine is now back in the news, charged with failing to attribute statements in an articles she wrote for a local paper. In addition to her other maladies, it appears she has a case of Shalit's Disease:

An Oct. 29 story on religion in schools did not attribute information to an opinion by Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart.

A Nov. 12 article on art censorship did not attribute information to Supreme Court Justice William Brennan and three other sources.

A Nov. 26 story on Thanksgiving did not attribute information, including proclamations by President Bill Clinton in 1997 and 2000.

The editor's note also mentions two essays submitted to Student Voices that had unattributed statements: one last Oct. 26, about the United States and Iraq, and the other on March 29, about the North Korean nuclear problem.

Her defense is that she thought it was okay to cut-and-paste, like every other kid with a computer, and she's not a professional journalist.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever you say.

At least she had the good sense to steal from liberals (though I don't really want her on my side).

And what is it with people named Blair?

On the bright side, her skills make her a shoe-in for a job in British intelligence, writing dossiers for Tony Blair.