How are students supposed to know that copying other people’s work off the Internet is wrong? That’s what one student who is suing his university for negligence wants to know.
Michael Gunn, a 21-year-old English student at Kent University in Britain who admits plagiarizing material from the Web, said the school should have warned him that using already published text was against the rules, according to the BBC.
"I did plagiarize. I never dreamt it was a problem,” Gunn told the news service.
Gunn, who was told on the eve of his final exams that he wouldn’t get any grades for his course work, is angry that his education — and the money he paid for it — is going to waste.
"If they had pulled me up with my first essay at the beginning and warned me of the problems and consequences, it would be fair enough,” said Gunn. “But all my essays were handed back with good marks and no one spotted it."
The deputy vice-chancellor of Kent University, David Nightingale, said all students are given guidelines that clearly state lifting material from other sources and passing it off as their own is against the regulations.
“In the School of English this information is provided in the faculty handbook and in the department's own handbook, both of which are issued to all students,” he said.
GREAT NECK, N.Y. (AP) — She was trying to stop her car from being towed, but a Queens woman ended up being towed herself.
Truck driver Donald Wilson was about to tow a BMW from a Waldbaums parking lot at about 3:15 p.m. Tuesday when the car's owner saw what was happening and argued with him, Nassau County Police said.
Wilson then began to drive away with the woman standing on a running board, hanging on to the side door of the tow truck, police said.
He allegedly kept going for about two miles before he was stopped by police officers.
Wilson was arrested on a charge of reckless endangerment and issued three tickets for violations of town ordinances, police said. The woman was not hurt.
Boy Takes on Old Family Name, Which Is 23 Letters Long
TINLEY PARK, Ill. (AP) — When your first name is as pedestrian as Paul, you tend to compensate for it on the back end.
But Maripadavuputhenpurayil?
That's how a Tinley Park eighth-grader spells his last name — with all 23 letters.
Maripadavuputhenpurayil is a family surname that dates back generations to a small farming village in southern India.
Paul, as he is better known in hallways and classrooms at Grissom Middle School (search) in Tinley Park, said he learned in third grade that his name was nearly as long as the English alphabet.
"In sections of India, homes are identified by names, not numbers," Paul said. "It's actually a house name."
The 14-year-old said he remembers seeing a letter his father, Yacob, was mailing to relatives in India, and the envelope had a name he hadn't seen before. So, Paul asked his mother about it.
"She told me it was our real name," he said. "Since then, I decided I would use that as my last name."
Paul's parents go by a 13-letter version of the name, Maripadavupil.
Paul said he shortens his name when he's taking tests. But he only contracts Maripadavuputhenpurayil on tests because he's proud of his family surname, and he wants others to know he's proud of it, too.
"It's his father's family name," said his mother, Susan, who works as a nurse. "I know people have difficulty pronouncing it, and kids even teased him at his old school.
"But one thing's for sure. No one will ever steal his identity."
Man Says Rule Against Walking His Pet Is 'Bull'
ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — Police in the coastal town of Split prevented the owner of a 1.43 ton bull from walking his pet along a popular promenade, a newspaper reported Thursday.
"If dog owners can bring their pets to the Riva (promenade) unleashed and without muzzles, why can't I bring my 'Zeco'?" protested Marko Skopljanac, who is organizing a festival featuring steers in his native village of Radosici near Split this Sunday.
A crowd of onlookers gathered around a truck transporting the beast to see if police would allow the owner to parade his pet as a promotion of the festival, the daily Vecernji list reported. Police refused.
Instead of strolling alongside the fashionable residents of Split, the steer was taken for a walk to a nearby beach, provoking nowhere near as much amazement.
Mexican Officers Punished for Barking, Croaking on Radio
MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) — More than 50 police officers in the border city of Nogales were detained for eight hours Wednesday after one of them repeatedly croaked like a frog and barked like a dog over the police radio frequency, officials said.
Nogales Assistant Police Chief Hector Leon said all officers and their commanders working in the afternoon shift were detained after their shift ended because no one took responsibility for the "childish actions."
"We had to disciplined all of them to make sure the jokester was punished and to send the message that such pranks won't be tolerated," Leon said. "They need to understand the radio is exclusively to coordinate emergency calls from the citizens of Nogales."
Nogales, a city of about 160,000, is located across from Nogales, Ariz.
Compiled by Foxnews.com's Marla Lehner.
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