4 The Real Effects of Plagiarism: Chris Spence

(Note: two additional participants who did not choose to be listed as authors participated in this project.)

Introduction

On January 6, 2013, the Toronto District School Board’s Director of Education Chris Spence submitted an article, “Without School Sports, Everyone Loses” to the Toronto Star. Within days that the company was contacted to review the article for plagiarism. Under review by one of the editors, it was indeed found that Spence had committed plagiarism and was confronted. Spence admitted to doing so immediately, acknowledging the article pulled from at least five other sources without being credited. Shortly after the scandal came to light, Spence resigned as director of the Toronto Board of Education, expressing remorse for his actions (Ontario College, 2017). However, this did not result in the end of the investigation into plagiarism in Spence’s writing and the impacts it would have on his life.

Plagiarism in published articles

Soon after, Spence was found to have also plagiarized a piece speaking on a Connecticut school shooting tragedy in 2012. This piece told a story similar to one written by Aisha Sultan three days earlier (Centennial College, n.d.). A few example lines that were held under scrutiny are the following lines written on Dec. 14, 2012, by Sultan:

But when I looked at my 7-year-old son, I put on my calmest face. ‘A terrible and sad thing happened today,’ I said. ‘Someone shot a gun at a school.’ He looked at me for a minute, trying to understand what I had said.

Three days later, on Dec. 17, 2012, responding to the same event, Spence wrote:

But when I looked at my 10-year-old son, Jacob, I put on my calmest face. ‘A terrible and sad thing happened today,’ I said. ‘Someone shot a gun at a school.’ He looked at me for a minute, trying to understand what I had said.

Among other articles discovered by the media, it was found that Spence’s cases of plagiarism continued even further into the past. One such article is called “On Time! On Task! On a Mission!” where he copied word for word from an article written in 1996 by the Los Angeles School District. Spence wrote “Students routinely came to school without a pen or pencil or anything on which to write,” (Ontario College of Teachers, 2017) while the Los Angeles School Board wrote, “Students who routinely come to school without a pen or pencil or anything on which to write.” (Ontario College of Teachers, 2017). Another example found was from an article Spence wrote in 2008 called “The Joys of Teaching Boys.” Spence plagiarized from another article called “Morphing Literacy: Boys Reshaping Their School-Based Literacy Practices,” by Heather A. Blair and Kathy Sanford. In this article, Spence used the line “These behaviours are viewed as interfering with literacy success, and they skew teachers’ perceptions of boys’ abilities and their willingness to engage in texts,” (Ontario College of Teachers, 2017) while Blair and Sanford wrote “These behaviours are viewed as interfering with school literacy success, and they skew teachers’ perceptions of boys’ abilities and willingness to engage in literacy texts.” (Ontario College of Teachers, 2017).

Further Investigations and Consequences

As further investigations continued, more possible cases of plagiarism were found throughout his career, and as a result, in 2014, that Spence lost his teaching license. Eventually, he resigned from his role as director of education due to pressure from the Toronto District School Board and Chair. Spence was officially stripped of his teaching certification by the Ontario College of Teachers in 2016 after being found guilty of professional misconduct (2017).

In 2016, Spence was also investigated by the University of Toronto for suspicion of plagiarism and patch-writing in his 1996 doctoral thesis, “The Effects of Sports Participation on the Academic and Career Aspirations of Black Male Student-Athletes in Toronto High Schools”. It was found that within the thesis, Spence had taken many excerpts verbatim or nearly so from at least sixty-seven instances without properly citing them, some being several sentences long (University of Toronto, 2017, p. 2). It was also found by the university that in each section that had been plagiarized, the passages had been reviewed and altered to fit the paper better, such as localization of words and familiar first-person tones, passing off the work as his own (University of Toronto, 2017, p.3).

During the University of Toronto investigation, Spence asked that many of the hearings be adjourned for reasons such as for health, or work-related issues, delaying the case’s closure and outcome by over a year (University of Toronto, 2017). Eventually, the decision was made in light of the evidence that he was indeed guilty of plagiarism and patchwriting. This resulted in the verdict that his doctorate be revoked and the university stated that “…had plagiarism been detected before the former Student received his degree, the degree would never have been conferred.” (University of Toronto, 2017, p. 30).

In an interview, Spence claimed to not have knowingly committed plagiarism. He explained, “You are just going through different ideas and you read a lot and you take notes, you’re working on something, you go away, you read something, you write it down … I’m a fairly prolific reader, so sometimes I just read ideas that meshed with my own.” (Rushowy & Brown, 2013). After making this statement, Spence disappeared from the public. Six months would pass before he made another public statement on the incident, in which he stated: “There are no excuses for what I did; I didn’t give credit where credit was due.” (Rushowy & Brown, 2013). Spence later talked about the impacts this continued investigation has had on his life: “Right from the get-go, I’ve taken full responsibility, I’ve apologized,” he said.  “I am on my knees, still. I just want to get back on my feet.” (CBC, 2017).

Discussion Questions

1. Were the consequences received by Chris Spence fair?
2. Do you think Spence was justly punished by society for his actions? Did the punishment match his crimes?
3. Should Spence be allowed to reclaim his reputation and credibility in the education field, and if so, what steps do you believe he should take?
4. Do you believe the public scrutiny and media coverage of Spence’s case have influenced perceptions of plagiarism and accountability in the education sector?
5. Do you think the fact that Spence was a Person of Colour in a high-level government position may be related to the amount of media attention that this case attracted?

References

CBC. (Jan. 16, 2017). Ex-TDSB director Chris Spence hopes to return to teaching, calls plagiarism scandal ‘hell’. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ex-tdsb-director-chris-spence-hopes-to-return-to-teaching-calls-plagiarism-scandal-hell-1.3936838

Centennial College. (n.d.) “Case Study, The Costs of Plagiarism”. A study in the spectacular fall of “Dr.”* Chris Spence!. Library Guides at Centennial College. https://libraryguides.centennialcollege.ca/c.php?g=592381&p=4097045

Ontario College of Teachers. (Feb. 23, 2017). Decision of the Discipline Committee. https://oct.ca/ShowDocument.pdf?documentType=Decision&id=1158&lang=E

Rushowy, K. & Brown, L. (July 25, 2013). Chris Spence breaks the silence on the plagiarism scandal. Toronto Star. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/chris-spence-breaks-silence-on-plagiarism-scandal/article_53621a9b-cffe-581b-9a6b-4a55e9c06866.html

Spence, C. (Dec. 16, 2012). Connecticut school shooting: ‘Heavy with hurt’ in Toronto.Toronto Star. https://www.thestar.com/opinion/without-school-sports-everyone-loses/article_cd17f09f-05e6-555b-9b85-5382f0566eaa.html

University of Toronto. 2017. THE DISCIPLINE APPEALS BOARD OF THE UNIVERSITY TRIBUNAL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO.  Case no. 709. https://governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/system/files/import-files/Case__709_DAB36420.pdf