'Double Secret Probation' for Plagiarizing Teacher

Teachers College in New York, the Columbia University Graduate School of Education, seems to have a problem with ethics. Or perhaps political correctness is where the real trouble lies.

Imagine a teacher at a teachers college that plagiarizes her work from both students and other faculty. What might be the punishment for such a transgression? Dismissal comes to mind immediately, of course.

But not in the ridiculous world inhabited by Columbia officials:

To wit, Teachers College revealed last week that an 18-month investigation has determined that Professor Madonna Constantine had lifted the work of a colleague and several students.

Now, plagiarism is a firing offense at Morningside Heights, right? Amazingly, no. Teachers announced that it had merely imposed secret "serious sanctions" against Constantine.

If her name seems familiar, it should. She's the prof upon whose door last fall was found a four-foot noose; the discovery sparked a national uproar, and the case remains unresolved.

The noose and plagiarism charge - which Constantine denies - are related, she said: They are proof of "structural racism" at Teachers College.

That's absurd, notes department Chairwoman Suniya Luthar: "The students who came with the complaints - most . . . are ethnic minorities, and a number of them are African-American."

As for the noose - well, let's just say that the police probe is ongoing.

"Serious 'secret' sanctions?" It sounds made up - like the "double secret probation" Delta House was put on in the movie Animal House.

When academic standards are sacrificed on the altar of political correctness, a university loses all respect. In Columbia's case, that happened a long time ago.

Hat Tip: Ed Lasky