A fictional essay.
Today the police came to my office. I often get visits from people I don’t know, and out of politeness I don’t tell them I’m extremely busy. Especially when someone pulls out an FBI badge or one from some other agency and doesn’t give me time to read it.
In short, they informed me they were investigating the rape of a student. One of the officers told me her name.
“Julie Blacknwhite.”
“I don’t recognize that last name. I always call my students by their first names. There are many Julies. In the last ten years alone, I must have had three or four thousand students and dozens of Julies.”
“Maybe you can look in your files,” one of the officers said to me.
I always refuse to give out information about any student, colleague, or acquaintance. My most sensitive files are offline and protected by two different codes.
“If Miss Blacknwhite listed me as a reference for a job, I can try to remember which semester she was my student…”
“Take your time,” said the officer, sitting down in one of the chairs used by students who visit me to share their troubles.
Not without some suspicion, I searched my database and found the girl. She had been one of my students in an Architecture and Civilization course in the fall of 2018. Quite recent. In my institutional email, I found that I had contacted her to discuss an important matter.
“What is it about, professor?” Julie had replied.
“I can’t tell you via email,” I had answered. “It’s an important matter I’d like to discuss with you.”
Out of sheer malice, I wrote to her on a Friday, so she’d spend the weekend pondering the reason for my email. The girl had cheated on an exam a month earlier. So I gave her a very low grade, expecting her to protest, which never happened. Then, in a final paper, she plagiarized a paragraph from a professor in Boston. Something very easy to detect due to the maturity of the idea and a quick Google search—shortly before ChatGPT made that kind of fact-checking nearly impossible. Having lost my patience, I had written to her that Friday, knowing she was aware of her mistake.
At the academy, plagiarism is punished in three ways: 1. A zero on the essay; 2. An F in the course, requiring the student to retake it; and 3. A disciplinary hearing and expulsion from the university.
I never went for options two and three. I believe that experienced veterans like me shouldn’t be so strict with inexperienced young people, ruining their lives over a youthful mistake.
Honestly, I was very upset with Julie. It seemed to me that she had committed two of the most despicable offenses in academia. I got even more upset when, during the meeting in my office, she tried to justify herself. “Everyone survives as best they can,” she told me. She showed no sign of remorse, and for that very reason, I was on the verge of sending her to the university’s honor tribunal. She left, slamming the door, and ruined my day.
Now, as the officers reopened that wound, I wondered why I hadn’t sent her to the honor court or given her an F.
“Did you find anything?” the officer said.
“Yes, something…” I said.
“And?”
“You’re right. Miss Julie Blacknwhite was my student in the fall of 2018.”
The officers took note.
“Do you remember her?”
“A little,” I replied. “Now, I don’t understand the point of this questioning. I assume I’m not being questioned as a suspect in anything.”
“No. We’re investigating a rape.”
“A sexual assault?”
“Correct.”
“So? Are you profiling the victim?”
The officers didn’t answer.
“We need to gather as much information as possible about Miss Blacknwhite. Whether you’d recommend her for a job. Whether Miss Blacknwhite has ever lied as a student. You know, the basics.”
“Has Miss Blacknwhite been raped? When?”
“A few days ago.”
“Was the rape confirmed by the forensic experts?”
“Yes.”
The officers got their pens ready.
“Well,” I said, “like anyone else, Miss Blacknwhite had her weaknesses. I remember she wasn’t a perfect student. Her presentations were a bit chaotic. Maybe because she was a very shy young woman. Anyway, things like that. But I don’t remember anything significant about her.”
Jorge Majfud, March 2026
