Parents sue their son’s school for punishing his AI use, heralding a messy future

A Massachusetts student was punished for his use of AI on an assignment.

The parents of a Massachusetts teenager are suing his high school, claiming their son was unfairly punished for using artificial intelligence, as educators grapple with how to handle the widespread use of the technology.

A 2023 survey conducted by Study.com found that 26% of the 203 K-12 teachers surveyed said they’d caught a student cheating using ChatGPT.

Ryan Abbott, a professor of law at the University of Surrey in the UK whose work focuses on AI, said AI use by students is “common even when prohibited” and is hard to detect.

He also said that although schools use techniques to detect AI use, these tools tend to be error-prone, “so disputes of this nature are likely to become increasingly common.”

Jennifer and Dale Harris filed the lawsuit last month against Hingham High School, its administrators, and the school district, saying the defendants imposed “arbitrary and capricious” discipline on their child.

According to a federal court filing, the parents said their son was punished for using AI to “prepare the initial outline and research” for a history paper on a civil-rights activist.

The parents said in the filing that AI was not used to write the paper and added that it included citations and a works cited page.

“They told us our son cheated on a paper, which is not what happened,” Jennifer Harris told WCVB-TV.

As a result of the incident, the parents said their son was given a Saturday detention, had his social-studies grade dropped to a C+, and was barred from being inducted into the National Honor Society.

The suit said the boy was a three-sport varsity student-athlete with a high GPA, a 1520 SAT score, and a perfect score on the ACT. It added that he was applying to “elite colleges and universities given his high level of academic and personal achievement,” including Stanford University.

The parents are seeking to have their son’s grade corrected, arguing that not doing so would have a “significant, severe, and continuing impact” on his chances of acceptance to Stanford and his “future earning capacity.”

The parents said in the lawsuit that the school punished their son for the violation of an unclear AI policy, which they say didn’t define how the technology could be used or how its improper use would be punished.

“They basically punished him for a rule that doesn’t exist,” Jennifer Harris told WCBV-TV.

She said she’d like to see the school “put in place an AI policy that makes sense.”

The attorneys representing the school did not immediately respond to a request for comment from B-17.

A copy of this year’s Hingham High School student handbook, which covers expectations of conduct, says the “unauthorized use of technology, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), during an assessment” may constitute cheating or plagiarism.

The handbook outlines that plagiarism and cheating are considered disciplinary matters, which may result in a failing grade for that assignment, but it doesn’t offer specific details on how AI can or can’t be used.

Matthew Sag, a professor of law in AI, machine learning, and data science at the Emory University School of Law, told B-17 that the school handbook’s outlined policy is “hopelessly vague and unfair.”

He said it doesn’t define what’s considered “unauthorized” or specify what kinds of technology are prohibited.

Sag added: “For example, can students use AI tools for studying, drafting papers, or checking grammar? Is spell-check AI? Is text prediction AI? Is a Google search AI? Is Grammarly AI?”

He said the policy “leaves students guessing, with apparently dire consequences if they guess wrong.”

Meanwhile, John Zerilli, a law professor at the University of Edinburgh and a research associate at the Oxford Institute for Ethics in AI, told B-17 that “using AI tools in school assessments is now virtually entrenched.”

He said schools should instead embrace how to use AI as part of students’ education.

In a statement provided to B-17, Peter Farrell, who’s representing the Harris family, said: “With college applications now due, the student is in serious jeopardy given the discipline imposed and the inequitable impact of the use of AI when it was not expressly prohibited by any adopted and approved policy.”