On Friday, Junior Minister of Education Leah Scott decided to attack Bermuda’s number one radio host, Sherri Simmons aka Sherri J.

In a letter to The Royal Gazette editor, the One Bermuda Alliance MP tried to utilise a passive-aggressive-passive approach by claiming that she had heard from a friend that she was being victimised by Sherri J on her radio show.

She wrote: “A friend of mine sent me an e-mail the other day. He said, ‘Leah, Sherri J has been on a real lovefest here lately when it comes to you. Yesterday, she practically read your bio on her show to emphasise you being a status Bermudian and all’.”

Ms Scott then switches gears and goes on to offer sage-like “sisterly” advice about how black women should not treat each other with negativity.

“It has always amazed me that black women are each other’s biggest critics,” she wrote. “We are the quickest to find each other’s faults, bring each other down.”

On Friday, I received a message on Facebook notifying me that Ms Scott had copied and pasted someone else’s writing from a website, hellobeautiful.com, and claimed it as her own. To say I was shocked would be a lie.

The article on Hello Beautiful states: “It has ALWAYS amazed me that black women are each other’s biggest critics. We are the quickest to bring each other down, find each others faults and nitpick at a sister until she has nothing left, nothing left to give, and then we step over her and call her worthless.”

Leah Scott wrote: “It has always amazed me that black women are each other’s biggest critics. We are the quickest to find each other’s faults, bring each other down, and pick, pick, pick at a sister until she has nothing left. After we have trod her down, then we step over her and say she isn’t worth anything.”

Hello Beautiful: “We call strong women female dogs and accuse weaker women of riding somebody else’s coat tails. We tell a big sister to put down her burger and criticise a skinny woman for not picking one up. We ride the loud mouth woman for talking too darn much and torment the quiet woman for needing to take up for herself.”

Leah Scott: “We tell a sister who is heavy to put down that piece of cake, yet we criticise a skinny woman for not eating any. We accuse strong women of being female dogs and then turn around and accuse weaker women of not having any chutzpah. We chant at loud-mouthed women for talking too darn much and torment a quiet woman who won’t take up for herself.

Once this was exposed on social media, Ms Scott had this to say for her actions: “I incorporated some of her thoughts into my letter. I used my own words. Plagiarism is using someone’s work word for word without giving credit to the source.”

At the time, she did not cite her sources. Here is a clear definition. Plagiarism (noun): the act of using another person’s words or ideas without giving credit to that person; the act of plagiarising something.

On Saturday this was posted at the end of the article on The Royal Gazette website after Ms Scott was exposed on Facebook.

“The author would like to cite hellobeautiful.com as a source of reference for parts of this letter. She apologises for the unintentional and inadvertent omission of this reference at the time of print publication.”

Keep in mind that this is the Junior Minister of Education, who happens to be a corporate lawyer. Exactly what message is she sending to the children of Bermuda? That is OK to cheat as long as you switch around a few details?

Interestingly, former German Education Minister Annette Schavan resigned in 2013 after a university stripped her of her doctorate for plagiarism.

Ms Scott should do the honourable thing and resign from her post as Junior Minister of Education. After all, she is trying to set a good example for Bermudian children, correct?

That is why she has been paid $182,000.00 of taxpayers’ money so far, correct?

She concluded her passive-aggressive-passive piece with these words to Sherri J: “Join me in being a contributor to the wholeness of women.”

Essentially, Ms Scott stole one sister’s writing and claimed it as her own. Sadly, she then took the same stolen writing and tried to publicly bash another well-loved sister, Sherri J.

• You can read the Hello Beautiful article at hellobeautiful.com/2010/11/26/why-do-black-women-tear-each-other-down