I was reading this thread, and there was a comment about people who aren’t actually graduating being allowed to walk in graduation ceremonies. So, I remembered that I was allowed to walk, even though I wasn’t actually graduating yet.
In high school, I absolutely loathed PE. It just seemed stupid, I could get better exercise on my own, I never really learned anything from it, and thus I’d find excuses to not go.
So, the week prior to graduation, I was informed that I had too many absences in PE and I would not be allowed to graduate unless I wrote a 10-page paper on any subject pertaining to PE. This paper was due the Monday after the graduation ceremony. Nobody really cared all that much, I think if he could, the PE teacher would have just allowed me to pass, but the principal wanted me to do SOMETHING to compensate for my absences.
I was in the library doing some research, and the art teacher (and wife of another PE teacher, not mine) came up and asked what I was up to. I told her, and she said, “that’s stupid…I hope you’re not planning on putting too much work into it, nobody’s even going to read it, I guarantee. You should just print something off from the internet and put your name on it.” So, as much as I hate plagiarizers, I figured what the hell…if no one’s going to read it, it’s just a silly formality to appease the principal, and I could probably get away with typing “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” for 10 pages, so I might as well.
I went to the graduation ceremony and was presented with a “certificate of attendance” in a diploma folder. I had my little party, blah, blah, blah, and on Monday I headed down to the school to turn in my fake paper. I handed it to the teacher, and as expected, he threw it directly into the trash can and said, “congratulations.” I went to the office, told the principal I gave the PE teacher my paper, he said, “great,” signed my diploma, shook my hand, and said congratulations and presented it to me while the secretary hummed Pomp and Circumstance.
So while I’m not proud of the time I plagiarised a paper, I don’t feel too bad about it, given the level of importance placed on the content.
Anybody else have a stupid not graduating story?