Among the most studious kids at Stoughton High School, you may hear whispers of the infamous Academic Plagiarism Club. This is one of the most prestigious gatherings one could join as a high schooler. Not only is it picky about who joins its social graces, but it may be difficult to locate.
“The name may alert the wrong kind of people, so we try to keep it on the DL. It’s really on a need-to-know basis, and we do a background check on every person who shows interest in joining,” said the advisor of the club, who asked to remain anonymous.
This is the reason why many people haven’t heard of such a club. It spreads through word of mouth alone, and if a member shares it with the wrong type of person, both are cut from attending.
“It sounds harsh, but also, if someone snitches on us, the whole thing gets shut down. So, like, you have to make some sacrifices here and there,” the advisor said.
Additionally, to maintain the mysterious facet of the club, the advisor switches the meeting locations every week. To determine where they will meet next, the advisor sends out several clues through the announcements, flyers, and during the occasional fire drill when applicable.
“Everyone, when they first join, they always say, like, ‘That’s way too much work,’ and, ‘I’m leaving, dude.’ But they always come back. So really, who’s the crazy one here? [The one] who distributes the clues or the one who continues to put them together? Personally, I think my kids enjoy the little puzzles. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have tried to join in the first place,” the advisor said.
The Academic Plagiarism Club (APC) hosts many activities to assist its students. The most common activity is the distribution of stolen papers, which happens every other Wednesday, besides a few skips here and there to avoid detection by suspicious individuals.
The distribution of stolen papers is exactly what it sounds like. At the beginning of each meeting, everyone brings papers that they either took from older siblings, younger siblings, friends, teachers, etc. and photocopies them to share with the rest of the group.
“We deal entirely in paper. I think the idea is that it’s not as traceable as doing something on the internet. I, personally, immediately copy and paste anything we do on paper into a Google Doc on my personal account. Is that a good idea? I’m not sure. I haven’t told [the advisor] about it, but I’ve got that Google Doc locked down, so [the advisor] shouldn’t worry about it,” one member of the APC said.
Then, they spend the rest of the meeting editing those stolen papers so they won’t be flagged when they’re turned in. Then, everyone claims their favorite or most usable for their current workload so that nobody accidentally turns in the same thing.
“Again, everyone who joins at first is like, ‘What the heck, I’m not doing all that,’ and ‘This club is super weird, do you even have the principal’s permission to be doing this?’ And, first of all, no, I don’t have permission—that’s why I change the meeting spot every week. Second of all, they realize very quickly that it’s not actually a lot of work, especially because we all work together and really just focus on the essays that will make sense for the classes they’re taking,” the advisor said.
Before the meeting ends, they discuss which papers will be the most important to get a hold of before the next meeting. However, this isn’t the only activity they partake in.
“Sometimes, we work on our socialization skills with ChatGPT,” a different member of the APC said.
Everybody in the APC has access to the fullest potential of ChatGPT, which means that everyone needs to figure out how to use it properly.
“Have you ever heard of key phrases or words? […] We work on using those, so you can get exactly what you’re looking for when using ChatGPT,” the advisor said.
These are big coding sessions without real-life connections. The advisor will ask for a specific kind of essay, answer, or image, and then the participants will scramble to perfect the result. The advisor decides which is the most believable, and then they walk through that result to replicate it in a real-life scenario.
“I have a typing speed of 300 words per minute now. The real thing that’s holding me back is the time it takes for ChatGPT to respond, because otherwise, I’m on every question in class. I’ve got a 4.5 [grade point average], which isn’t usually possible, but I emailed the principal with an AI-generated message, and now I have that and 12 scholarships,” one member said.
Additionally, they run fundraisers every other month in a new place every time. The theme changes every month, the most recent being ”clowning around,” where they performed a comedy sketch written by ChatGPT and John Mulaney. They raised approximately $10,000 and donated evenly to Elon Musk and the local Walmart.
“I think what’s most important is that you think of this like any other club, right? Because it is. It’s for those who really want to go above and beyond with their education, and this is the perfect opportunity for that,” the advisor said.
The advisor shared one clue for those interested in joining to help them get started without contacting certain people: “1-3, listen to the announcements*.”
*Please do not reach out to the Norse Star with questions. We don’t know what that means either, and the advisor has stopped all communication with us since we asked about what they teach at Stoughton High School.
