High School Valedictorian Plagiarized 2006 'Chipotle Speech'

Walpole High School’s valedictorian plagiarized her speech given at Sunday’s graduation. She delivered a speech about burritos, known as the Wootton High School Chipotle graduation speech on the Internet, given by a Maryland student in 2006.

Valedictorian Vivian Ling issued an apology via her public Twitter account the day after graduation, which has since been removed. Most of the Ling’s speech was stolen word for word from another student’s graduation speech at Wootton High School in Rockville, Maryland, according to WCVB.com.

Meanwhile, Stephen Imbusch, principal of Walpole High School, sent this message to parents, students, and community members of Walpole, and incorporated Ling’s apology:

“It has come to our attention that the Valedictory speech at our Graduation Ceremony last Sunday was plagiarized from a speech that was given at another school in the past.”

The high school prinicapl incorporated Ling’s Twitter message into his statement. Imbusch said Ling had already issued a public apology.

“I am sorry. I am genuinely not a creative person. I have no excuse for plagiarizing my speech, and my actions are completely my fault. I understand that apologizing does not remedy the situation, but I am truly sorry for associating such an important milestone in our lives, graduation, with my personal lack of moral character. Thank you for reading this apology,” Ling wrote in her Tweet.

Imbusch continued, “This incident has been addressed with the student, and appropriate action will be taken by the school. In addition, we will reassess our practice for choosing the students who speak at graduation, and to vet those speeches in a manner that will never allow this to happen again.

“On behalf of Walpole High School, I want to apologize to the Walpole community. I also want to apologize to the student who originally penned this speech. Plagiarism is a serious academic offense that cannot and will not be tolerated at Walpole High School.”

The burrito speech essentially leads the audience to believe the speaker will do the traditional thanking of parents, families, teachers and the community for their support throughout the years -- but in an irreverent twist that came across as funny - the valedictorian instead thanked the staff at Chipotle’s for their food and dedicated service.

Walpole is a town located about 13 miles south of downtown Boston in Massachusetts.

Ling has not commented on her Twitter account since Monday.