On September 2, 2021, John Siemion, the president of the Grand Haven Area Public Schools board of education, resigned after 22 years. His term was due to end in another four years. He wrote what appeared to be a heartfelt letter announcing his resignation that was forwarded to the community though an official GHAPS distribution. However, the words he used to paint a picture of harassment affecting his health were not even his own. In fact, they were plagiarized directly from separate news articles published just days before his resignation.
The full letter can be seen below with plagiarized sentences highlighted.
The first plagiarized section is: “Many board members are resigning out of fear of threats, harassment, the fact that they aren’t paid for how they’re treated, and because politics are being put ahead of the children.” This sentence is taken word-for-word from the New York based news site “FingerLakes1.com” Staff Report titled, “School board members are quitting all over the country as threats and harassment become hostile” and can be found here. Another sentence: “School board members are [] unpaid and volunteering to do the work for free and because they care about the students” is also taken verbatim from the same article. This was published three days before his resignation.
Another plagiarized section is: “A growing number of board members are resigning or questioning their willingness to serve as meetings have devolved into shouting contests between deeply political constituencies over how racial issues are taught, masks in schools, and COVID-19 vaccines and testing requirements.” This sentence is taken word-for-word from an Associated Press article titled “Hostile school board meetings have members calling it quits” by Carolyn Thompson and can be found here. This was published five days prior to his letter.
Why is this a concern? There are several reasons why. The first, is that John Siemion was a trusted member of the community and is still the Vice President of the Ottawa County ISD School Board. He was given lots of attention from the media from his words in this letter. Many people read these articles and commented against those parents speaking out against the board’s masking policies. However, he never once gave an example of how he was threatened or harassed. He just found words on-line and apparently thought they sounded better than what he could write himself. The media did not ask how he was threatened and published his letter without checking its veracity.
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Next, the letter showed a selfless volunteer facing “fear of threats”, “shouting matches” and people putting politics “ahead of children.” He said he was resigning to protect his health. It spurred many people to question what was going on at Grand Haven school board meetings. However, many of the parents that had been attending the school board meetings would argue this was not an accurate portrayal of what was going on. It could be argued they were confused by his words because they were not taken from his own experiences.
Lastly, there is the obvious use of someone else’s words without citation. Academic integrity is taught to all students in GHAPS. The GH High School student handbook has a section regarding cheating: “The administration and teaching staff believe that students have a significant responsibility in the area of honesty and integrity.” And, “The student will receive a grade of zero (0) on the test, assignment or term paper on which the cheating or plagiarism.” Students are taught what it means to plagiarize and certainly anyone in a professional capacity should understand the importance of conveying your own thoughts in a resignation letter. John Siemion should have received a “zero” on this letter and not given the attention from the media without them asking him to explain his words and what happened to him. It is an insult to the concerned parents showing up to board meetings that he did not use his own words when lambasting them to the public.
John Siemion is currently the Vice President of the Ottawa County ISD School Board and a Director on the Board of the Michigan Association of School Boards (MASB). Since he was unable to carry on as President at the district level, he should strongly consider resigning from his position at the county letter. This time, he should use his own words.