Naperville principal admits speech he gave was ex-student's

Naperville Central Principal Jim Caudill said Thursday a speech he gave at a recent high school event was not his own.

Naperville Unit District 203 administrators are looking into the incident, which involves a presentation Caudill made at Tuesday's senior commemorative program that was penned by a former student more than a decade ago.

Caudill said he made a mistake. He said he intended to ask the author's permission to use the speech, but never did.

"It's not the idea of trying to plagiarize someone else's speech; it's just the idea I didn't communicate to her I was using it," he said.

Preparing for the event the night before, Caudill said he already had written his own remarks but started looking through old speeches for more ideas. He came across one given more than a decade ago by Megan Plackett, a 1997 graduate of the school who is now a teacher there.

He made some tweaks to her speech and said he considered calling Plackett for permission to use her work. Because of the late hour, he decided to wait until Tuesday morning when he would see her at school.

But the day was hectic and he said it wasn't until midway through the speech that night that he realized he never spoke with her.

He said being busy is not an excuse, and he slipped up by not speaking with Plackett.

"You don't want to minimize the situation, but it was not the idea I was trying to take something unbeknownst to her, especially because I knew she would be at the program," Caudill said. "To walk upstairs to tell her would only take a second and I didn't get up there that day."

Plackett declined comment Thursday afternoon.

Naperville Unit District 203 Superintendent Alan Leis called the situation "absolutely inappropriate."

"I certainly am upset it happened," he said. "At this point he has been very upfront with me about the mistake he made. We'll continue to work on the situation."

Caudill already has discussed the issue with both Leis and Plackett. The three talked about bringing the matter up at Wednesday's graduation ceremony in order to be clear about who penned the speech, but decided doing so would only take attention away from graduating seniors.

Caudill did subsequently address the English Department faculty about the matter.

In terms of possible disciplinary action, Leis is still looking into the situation and said it is a personnel matter.

While he said he is concerned about the message Caudill's action sends to students, he believes there is also a good message for them in the principal's willingness to acknowledge his mistake.

"I don't see any evidence of an intent to deceive," Leis said. "I believe … he always intended and tried to check it out (with Plackett) if that was possible, but he didn't follow through on that and that is a problem."