BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) – A Boston middle school principal who admitted she plagiarized a Forbes magazine column in an effort to inspire staff resigned Wednesday amid more allegations that she had plagiarized portions of her job application materials.
Jaime Moody, who was the new principal of the Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School in Dorchester, said in an apology that she "inappropriately copied words from another author and passed them off as my own." She also apologized to the school department and the original author.
The plagiarism was discovered by a suspicious teacher who used Google to find the original, which ran in Forbes in April. Moody's memo included large chunks of word-for-word copying.
In the latest incident, Moody's apparent plagiarism began on the second page of a 13-page memo she submitted when applying for the principal's job. She landed that position in June with a salary of $110,000 a year.
Interim Superintendent John McDonough said in a statement that the school department was accepting Moody's resignation and has notified the pilot school's governing board to begin a search for a new principal immediately.
"For the second time in two weeks the Boston Globe has raised questions about whether an employee used someone else's work without proper attribution. In the first instance it was an informal email to staff. In the second instance it appears to have been in an application for a promotion," McDonough said.
"We have every expectation for high standards and excellence for our students and we expect an even higher standard of our school leaders. Tonight we are accepting Jamie Moody's resignation as principal of the Frederick Middle School. We have already reached out to the Pilot School Board to immediately begin the process to identify a strong new leader for this great school," McDonough said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
