NEWTON, Mass. – A second Massachusetts school superintendent has learned the hard way that while most graduation speeches are dull and unmemorable, that doesn’t mean they’re part of the public domain and free to be regurgitated without attribution.

The latest educator to learn that lesson is Newton Public Schools Superintendent David Fleishman.

On June 9, Fleishman delivered a commencement speech to Newton South High School graduates, one of whom was Jordan Cohen-Kaplan.

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During Fleishman’s remarks, Cohen-Kaplan noticed several passages in the speech were strikingly familiar to ones in Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick’s address to Boston University graduates in May. (Cohen-Kaplan had been at that graduation, too, according to BostonGlobe.com.)

The alert and enterprising Cohen-Kaplan worked with fellow student Kylie Walters on an article for the high school newspaper that presented side-by-side comparisons of excerpts from Superintendent Fleishman’s speech and Gov. Patrick’s speech. An example:

Gov. Patrick: “Real human connection, the nuance of empathy and understanding, is often more gradual and elongated than Twitter.”

Superintendent Fleishman: “Lastly, personal connection, the nuance of empathy and understanding, is often more incremental and complex than Twitter.”

“It is disappointing and disillusioning to imagine that we cannot expect the best from the highest ranking Newton public schools officials, especially on a widely-attributed day designed to celebrate student achievement and serve as an education capstone,” Cohen-Kaplan and Walters wrote in their exposé:

The Newton school board (or “school committee”) responded to the revelation by holding several meetings and then deciding on July 24 that Fleishman was to be punished for his transgression by forfeiting a week’s salary – roughly $5,000, BostonGlobe.com reports.

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Fleishman has acknowledged that he heard the governor’s speech on the radio, and that he intended to build on several of Patrick’s themes. He admitted that he should have attributed the ideas to Patrick – though he refused to characterize his actions as plagiarism, BostonGlobe.com reports.

Fleishman noted that his speech also included properly attributed ideas from historian David McCullough. That suggests the superintendent’s actions stemmed from sloppiness rather than dishonesty.

Regardless, this incident comes right on the heels of Brenda Hodges’ resignation as superintendent of Massachusetts’ Mansfield  Public Schools after it was discovered she had lifted several lines – without attribution – from a popular commencement address for her June 8 commencement address.

The obvious lesson from all of this is that school leaders need to act with the same academic integrity that they demand of their students. As the BostonGlobe.com notes, Newton South High School students receive a “zero” for their first plagiarism offense – and a one-day suspension for a second.

The other lesson is that even though a commencement address may be as dry as dust, some people are actually listening – at least those without smart phones.