SCHOOL DISTRICT BOSS DENIES PLAGIARISM CHARGE; MORAVIA SUPERINTENDENT SAYS HE NEVER CLAIMED THE TWO STORIES IN QUESTION WERE HIS.(Local)

Byline: David L. Shaw Staff writer

Moravia school Superintendent William P. Tammaro is denying a plagiarism charge leveled against him by a retired Moravia science teacher.

In a letter to newspapers in the area late last month, the retired teacher, Steven Fland, said a written message from Tammaro to the senior class in the district's June newsletter was "taken directly from the" Internet, "almost word for word, with no citation as to its source, which is blatant plagiarism."

In addition to the complaint in the letter, Fland has since added that Tammaro's June 2005 newsletter message to seniors also had problems.

The school board will discuss Fland's allegations in executive session at its Aug.23 meeting, according to Terry L. Lamphier, board president.

"I'm no expert in plagiarism, but if it is, I don't believe it was intentional. It was something he received from a friend. He often shares e-mails from that same person with the board. The content and message is the key," Lamphier said.

"I can say Mr. Tammaro is doing a wonderful job and I wish people would be more positive and less negative," she said. She said Fland is the only one complaining about Tammaro's message.

Fland said the story, called "A Simple Gesture," by John W. Schlatter, was taken from the 1993 best-seller "Chicken Soup for the Soul."

He also said Tammaro's June 2005 newsletter message to seniors was an almost word-for-word reproduction of a story called "The Cab Ride," by Kent Nerburn.

Asked about the columns and stories, Tammaro said he was unaware of their origin.

"I made it clear in the introduction this year that I had a story to share with them (the students). I received it from a friend. I just passed it on," Tammaro said, denying deliberate plagiarism.

Tammaro, who makes $126,764 a year, said his friend is a school nurse from another state who often e-mails him "message" stories that pertain to education.

"I never claimed they were my stories. I made it pretty clear I got them from someone else and was passing them along,"

Tammaro said. "I didn't know the source of these stories. If I did, I would have cited them. I felt the lessons they imparted was the important thing."

Rebecca Moore Howard, an associate professor in Syracuse University's writing program, is an expert on plagiarism.

She said Tammaro's actions are more a matter of "not good writing" than stealing someone else's work and passing it off as his own. "The fact that he put the story in quotes indicated it wasn't his," she said. "However, he should have attributed its source."

The June 2006 newsletter article begins with those words: "As you graduate from high school, what impression have you had on others? I share the following story with you."

It goes on to tell of a high school freshman who helped a "nerdy" freshman after he was knocked down by bullies and his books and glasses were scattered to the ground.

The two became best friends, and the boy with the books, called Kyle, became class valedictorian.

The story states that in his valedictory address, Kyle talked of the value of friends and told how the two met. He went on to say that the kindness of his friend when Kyle was knocked down prevented him from committing suicide that weekend.

Fland said an Internet site - www.snopes.com/glurge/kyle.htm***- states the origin of the story is a rewritten version of "A Simple Gesture."

A Google search, typing in the words "A Simple Gesture by Schlatter," generated a list. Several items down was a link to Urban Legends Reference Pages.

Clicking on that showed the exact text of Tammaro's written message in the newsletter. It is described as a rewritten version of Schlatter's story that appeared in the 1993 "Chicken Soup for the Soul" book.

The 2005 message includes all but 10 sentences of the Nerburn story, which tells of the kindness of a cabdriver to a passenger, a dying elderly woman leaving her home to go a hospice to spend her final days.

Most of the story is placed in a border or box on the page, without quotation marks.

That story can be seen by typing in the words "the cab ride" onto a Google search.

In his introduction to that story, Tammaro wrote "a good friend shared a story with me that really says it all. I'd like to share it with you." But he did not say where the story came from.

"Plagiarism is unacceptable and when a school superintendent does this, it is unconscionable," Fland wrote, also criticizing Tammaro for not saying a word at the 2006 senior honors reception or graduation ceremonies.

Howard said plagiarism covers a wide range of situations. She said there is a difference between students writing papers in the classroom and what administrators or readers do in their communications.

She said the president of the United States delivers speeches that are ghostwritten for him, and chief executive officers of private businesses have assistants who draft memos and then sign them for distribution to employees.

"No one challenges that as immoral. That's not the same thing as a student going online and downloading a paper and turning it in as their own," Howard said.

There are different levels of attributions, Howard said, and mistakes are made when doing that.

She said Tammaro put quotes or a box around the parts that weren't his. "It's not like he went out and stole something. He (just) didn't tell his audience what his sources were."

David L. Shaw may be reached at dshaw@syracuse.com or 253-7316.