Schmidt caught plagiarizing in newspaper column.

In her recent column on bus safety, Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH) warned school children to “never bend down near or under the bus to pick something up that has fallen.” An observant Ohio blog, The Daily Bellwether, noticed that parts of Schmidt’s column were strikingly similar to columns written by former Ohio State Highway Patrol Col. Paul McClellan. The Cincinnati Enquirer confirmed Schmidt’s cut-and-paste plagiarism today:

If Rep. Jean Schmidt’s latest column on school bus safety looked familiar, there’s a good reason why.

Six sentences from her column of last Tuesday appear to be cut and pasted in identical form from a column written in October 2005 by then-Ohio State Highway Patrol Col. Paul McClellan. [...]

For example, Schmidt’s column says: “When exiting the bus, care should be taken to check that clothing with drawstrings and book bags with straps do not get caught in the handrails or doors. Additionally, students should never go back for anything left on the bus, and never bend down near or under the bus to pick something up that has fallen.”

McClellan’s column says: “When exiting the bus, care should be taken to check that clothing with drawstrings and book bags with straps do not get caught in the handrails or doors. Additionally, students should never go back for anything left on the bus, and never bend down near or under the bus to pick something up that has fallen.”

This isn’t the first time Schmidt has been caught passing off other people’s words as her own. In September 2006, Schmidt appropriated passages from Rep. Deborah Pryce’s (R-OH) press releases for a column on Medicare.