Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos lifted “several sentences and phrases from other sources without attribution” in her responses to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, the Washington Post reports:
In answering a set of questions from Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) on how she would address bullying of LGBTQ students, DeVos wrote: “Every child deserves to attend school in a safe, supportive environment where they can learn, thrive, and grow.”
That sentence is almost identical to language used by Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department's civil rights division under Obama, in a press release announcing the administration's controversial guidance to schools on how to accommodate transgender students.
“Every child deserves to attend school in a safe, supportive environment that allows them to thrive and grow,” Gupta said in the May 2016 release.
Another answer regarding LGBTQ students is lifted from “a magazine published by ASCD, an organization devoted to education leadership,” according to the paper:
The article outlines what educators can do to create schools that are supportive of transgender students, and concludes: “You—as an educator and an ally—can dramatically shift the school climate to one that is safe, supportive, and inclusive: a place where all students can learn, achieve, and thrive.”
Another answer is lifted from an Education Department website without attribution, and other answers lift language from a 1979 federal statute without citing it.
DeVos is scheduled to be confirmed today.
We only need 3 more votes to #StopDeVos! Call & tweet the following senators to vote against Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education. pic.twitter.com/cT464fLbnF
— Women's March (@womensmarch) January 30, 2017
