R by Carley Frey, north gubernator
The tale of:
R by Carley Frey, north gubernator
roman
S spongebob
The graphic arts projects; we all know them and we all love them. But this year, at the 2025 National Latin Convention, a tragedy struck during the grading of an Ohio student’ s graphic art project.
When you drop off a media piece for the graphic arts contest, what exactly happens to it? As Ohio was the host state for this year’ s national convention, you could have had the chance to find out. Ohioans volunteered for different positions around the Miami campus, one being graphic arts runners. All you had to do was take the student’ s art project and put it in the correct category and grade. When the incident took place, witnesses from Shaker Heights Highschool were volunteering.
It was a sunny afternoon on July 21st, a day after the first Ohioans arrived on Miami Campus, and things were looking good. Students one after the other were turning in projects and we were running them to the right places but one particular artwork sparked a question. It was a painting of an Among Us character in a Roman setting but the judges disqualified it. When asked about the penalty, they revealed it broke the copyright and plagiarism rules. This prompted one Shaker Heights student to ask about her own project; Roman SpongeBob.
After the judges had looked, they also realized that the student ' s work also went against the copyright and plagiarism rules. Either it was regular SpongeBob in a toga meaning copyright infringement, or it was Roman SpongeBob which would be plagiarism. There was no way to win ….. unless? If this student could get permission from Nickelodeon to use SpongeBob in her artwork, she could compete in the event. Off she went to Instagram to DM the company. When they responded, she realized it was possible to have a permit to use the copyright but alas, it would take at least 48 hours to be approved.
Our story comes to an end, with our lovely student being disqualified from the competition as she wept the rest of the convention. If only she had read the rules to the graphic arts competition more diligently, or if she had gotten the permission any earlier, she would have scored points for Ohio. Let this be a warning to any JCLers in the future, read the rules, and keep Roman SpongeBob in your thoughts as you journey on.
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