At the Award Ceremony My Advisor Called Me Plagiarist, I Jailed Him

At the award ceremony, my faculty advisor, Quinn Whitney, put the trophy in my hands, chuckled, and said, Congratulations, Leah. Only, this thesis of yours, I feel like I've seen it somewhere before...

Be honest with me, Leah. Did you plagiarize this thesis?

The entire hall went silent in an instant.

From his seat below, Professor Norris let out a scornful little laugh. "I've always said her regular coursework was nothing special. No way she could've written a thesis this good."

I was shaking with anger.

Just as I was about to fire back, I caught the two of them exchange a glance, looking utterly pleased with themselves.

I froze for a moment, took a deep breath to steady myself, then turned and dialed 911.

"Hi, yes. My thesis appears to have been stolen and published somewhere else without my knowledge, which violates my rights. Yes, that's right, I have people here who can serve as witnesses. I'd appreciate it if you could get here as soon as possible."

When the officer arrived, Quinn produced the so-called evidence of my plagiarism.

My heart leapt straight into my throat.

The crowd below was pointing and whispering, and the officer, too, looked at me differently now.

I let out a long sigh and handed the trophy back to Quinn.

I shook my head and said, "Professor Whitney, you really have seen this thesis before."

1.

Whispers rippled through the hall almost at once.

I could feel countless eyes turning toward me.

Unhurried, I took out my phone, opened the voice recorder, and said, "Professor Whitney, Professor Norris, would you mind repeating what you just said?"

"And I'll also need you to tell me exactly when and where you saw it."

"I wrote this thesis on my own. If what you're saying is true, then there's only one possibility. Someone stole my thesis and published it without my knowledge."

"That violates my rights, and I have every right to hold that person accountable. So I'd like the two of you to be very clear about this."

At those words, Quinn's and Professor Norris's faces turned ugly.

Professor Norris gave a cold snort. "Quinn, this student of yours is really something. I made one offhand remark, and now she wants to send me straight to jail?"

Quinn forced a smile beside him. "Clive Norris, she's young, hot-blooded. Don't take it to heart."

Then he shot me look after desperate look, willing me to apologize to Professor Norris.

I gave a cold smile.

If I didn't clear this up today, the label of thesis plagiarist would be nailed to me for good.

Even though I wrote this thesis myself, no one would believe it.

Seeing that I stayed silent, Professor Norris's face went from black to a sickly green, until at last he waved a hand with put-on magnanimity.

"Forget it, forget it, let's just let this go! I won't hold it against her."

"But, Professor Norris, you still haven't made it clear. Where did you see it, and when?"

Bang! Professor Norris slammed the table and shot to his feet, jabbing a finger in my face as he cursed at me.

"Leah Henson, don't push your luck. I already said I'd let this go, so what are you still clinging to?"

"Fine, fine, fine, say I misspoke. I apologize. Are you satisfied now?"

Quinn chimed in from the side, frowning.

"Leah, that's enough. Professor Norris just said it in passing. Don't take it to heart."

I corrected him.

"Professor, I'm protecting my own lawful rights."

Seeing that nothing I said got through, Quinn Whitney's face darkened too.

He put on a look of deep disappointment and scolded me.

"Leah Henson, with this many people watching, you really have to make a scene? How did I ever end up teaching a student with no respect for her elders!"

By all rights, my thesis winning an award should have been good news for Whitney.

So why go out of his way to hint in front of everyone that I'd copied it?

I frowned, unable to work out what they were after with this whole performance.

But the way things looked, pressing him further wouldn't turn up anything useful.

So I simply switched off the voice recorder on my phone.

At that, Whitney visibly let out a breath.

Before he could get another word in, though, he watched me dial 911.

"Hi, yes. My thesis appears to have been stolen and published somewhere else without my knowledge, which violates my rights. Yes, that's right, I have people here who can testify. I'd appreciate it if you could get to the scene as soon as possible."

The moment I finished, Whitney snatched the phone right out of my hand.

His face went a dark, liverish red, the veins standing out on the hand gripping my phone.

"Leah Henson, are you out of your damn mind? You call the police over something this small?"

A flash of guilt crossed Professor Norris's face too, but he steadied himself fast.

He stood up, clasped his hands behind his back, and gave a light cough.

"Young people shouldn't act on impulse like this. Whatever the issue is, we can discuss it privately. With this many people watching, blowing it up won't do you any good."

He was only saying that to give himself an easy way out.

But I had no intention of handing him one.

"Professor Norris, Professor Whitney, you two are respected senior faculty of our law school, so I'm sure you both know this. If what you're saying is true, then whoever infringed my copyright can face up to three years in prison."

"But if the two of you are lying, then..."

I paused on purpose, and under Whitney's nearly murderous stare, I went on: "Then the two of you are spreading slander, which carries criminal liability all the same."

By the time I finished, Whitney's and Professor Norris's faces had gone black as the bottom of a pot.

They probably never imagined things would get to this point.

If they backed off now, it would confirm they'd made the whole thing up.

But if they insisted they'd seen this thesis before and couldn't produce a shred of proof, that was still slander and troublemaking.

Unless, of course, they could conjure up out of thin air a thesis that had already been published and was identical to mine.

I turned to Professor Norris and said, unhurried:

"And Professor Norris said a moment ago that my regular coursework was all copied. When the officers get here, I hope he'll be ready to produce evidence for that too."

Professor Norris's fingers clenched until the knuckles cracked.

His face was grim, and there was something cold and venomous in the way he glared at me.

That look said he'd happily swallow me whole.

Whitney opened his mouth, like he wanted to say something, but I gave him no chance at all.

I turned and bowed to every student in the auditorium.

"You all heard what Professor Whitney and Professor Norris just said, I think. When the officers arrive, I hope you'll be willing to testify for me. Thank you, everyone."

The auditorium had been quiet, and the second I finished, it broke into noise.

Plenty of students spoke up, saying they'd testify for me.

And with that, Whitney and Professor Norris were well and truly cornered.

I wanted to see just how they planned to get out of this.

The officers arrived fast. The one in front let his gaze sweep across all of us.

"Who called it in?"

"I did, Officer."

I raised my hand and glanced at the badge in his hand. Simmons.

Before Officer Simmons could ask what had happened, Quinn Whitney shouldered his way over from the side.

He stepped up and grabbed the officer's hand. "It's a misunderstanding, all a misunderstanding. Sorry to drag you out here for nothing."

Officer Simmons pulled his hand back, ignored him, and turned to me for the standard questions.

"What happened?"

I handed him the thesis and the certificate I'd organized, along with the recording I'd just made, and gave him a quick account of what had gone on.

When Officer Simmons saw the words "law school" on my certificate, the corner of his mouth twitched.

He gave Quinn Whitney and Professor Norris a long, meaningful look.

The look seemed to say, you're really going to slander a law student? Seriously?

Officer Simmons cleared his throat twice. "May I ask when, and where, the two of you supposedly saw this thesis?"

Professor Norris's eyes drifted. "I, I don't remember."

Quinn Whitney jumped in at once.

"Right, Officer, we just glanced at it in passing. Who's got nothing better to do than memorize a thing like that?"

I turned the question back on him.

"Just glanced at it in passing, but you remember it well enough to accuse me, and yet you can't remember when or where you saw it?"

He had no comeback.

I went on, unhurried. "And if I remember right, Professor Norris just said my regular coursework is all copied. I'd love to know what evidence Professor Norris has that any of that is true."

Professor Norris turned his face away, unable to look at me.

"Who has time to sit around collecting evidence like that? Leah Henson, quit making a scene and wasting the officers' time. I've already made myself perfectly clear about the thesis. I simply don't remember where I saw it!"

I smiled.

Did they really think that if they clamped down on "I don't remember," there'd be nothing anyone could do?

"Officer, since both my advisor and Professor Norris say they don't remember, then I'd like to request that IT pull all of their browsing records. If they claim they saw it, the records will show it."

At that, Quinn Whitney lost it completely.

"No. I absolutely refuse. That's a violation of my personal privacy!"

"Leah, just treat it as your teacher having a little joke with you. Do you really have to blow this out of proportion?"

Me, blowing this out of proportion?

Why hadn't they thought about the consequences when they were spreading their lies?

Now they turned around and accused me of blowing it out of proportion. Didn't they find that laughable?

If I hadn't fought this all the way today, if I'd let it fester, would they have stepped forward on their own to clear my name and set the record straight?

No.

So the only person who could clear my name was me.

I turned to face Quinn Whitney, my eyes steady. "Professor, this has to be investigated all the way to the bottom, and my name has to be cleared. Otherwise I won't let it go."

But watching Quinn Whitney and Professor Norris stand there without a trace of panic, I frowned.

The two of them were far too calm.

When something felt this off, there was always something rotten underneath.

My gut told me it wasn't going to be that simple.

Sure enough, Quinn Whitney let out a sigh.

He looked at me like a man in genuine pain. "Leah, things have blown up this far. Even if I wanted to keep covering for you, there's just no way to keep it quiet anymore."

Professor Norris, who had said nothing for a while, finally spoke too. "Hmph. She's an ungrateful little snake. She'll never understand the trouble you went to for her sake."

Quinn Whitney closed his eyes for a moment, wearing the look of a man disappointed by someone he'd hoped better of.

"Leah, the truth is I knew from the start that your thesis was plagiarized. But we're teacher and student, after all, and I didn't want to make it ugly. You're the one who insisted on escalating this, so don't blame me for what comes next."

With that, he pulled a flash drive out of his pants pocket and held it up for everyone to see.

"A week before you published this thesis, I'd already seen an article somewhere else that was almost identical to yours."

He plugged the flash drive into both computers.

A moment later, a thesis appeared on the big screen at the center of the auditorium.

The content was seventy percent identical to my thesis.

But its publication date was a full week earlier than mine.

Instantly the auditorium broke into chatter again.

"What is this? After all that fuss, turns out her thesis really was copied off someone else's."

"I said there was no way she could've written a thesis that good. So it was stolen."

"Honestly, how does someone like that still have the nerve to stay at our school?"

Once Officer Simmons saw the content, he frowned too.

He looked at me, suspicious.

I said nothing. I only smiled once I read the byline at the end.

So that was it.

So this was the whole show they'd staged, and this was what they'd been after.

They really had put some thought into it.