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

• Parents in Massachusetts are suing a school over their son being punished for using AI.
• The parents say their high-achieving son only used AI to help prepare a paper, not to write it.
• A law professor told BI that the use of AI tools in assignments is now "virtually entrenched."

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

According to a 2023 survey conducted by Study.com, which interviewed 203 K-12 teachers, 26% of those surveyed said they'd caught a student cheating using ChatGPT.

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

He also said that although schools use techniques to detect AI use, these tools tend to be error-prone, "and 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, in which they alleged 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 artificial intelligence 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 noted 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 student was given a Saturday detention, his Social Studies grade dropped to a C+, and, the parents claim, he was barred from being inducted into the National Honor Society.

The suit portrayed the boy as a high-achiever, describing him as a three-sport varsity student-athlete with a high GPA, a 1520 SAT score, and a perfect score on the ACT, and said he was applying to "elite colleges and universities given his high level of academic and personal achievement," including the highly competitive Stanford University.

The parents are seeking to have their son's grade corrected, arguing that not doing so will have a "significant, severe, and continuing impact" on his chances of acceptance to Stanford, as well as his "future earning capacity."

The parents argue in the lawsuit that the school punished their son for the violation of an unclear AI policy, which they say did not clearly define how it could be used, nor how its improper use could be punished.

"They basically punished him for a rule that doesn't exist," Jennifer Harris told WCBV-TV.

Harris said that she would 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 Business Insider.

A copy of this year's Hingham High School Student Handbook, which covers expectations of conduct, states that the "unauthorized use of technology, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), during an assessment" may constitute cheating or plagiarism.

It outlines that plagiarism and cheating are considered disciplinary matters, which may result in a failing grade for that assignment, but offers little specific detail on how AI can or can't be used.

Matthew Sag, a professor of law in AI, machine learning, and data science at Emory University Law School, told BI that the school handbook's outlined policy is "hopelessly vague and unfair."

He said it does not define what is considered "unauthorized" nor does it 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 research associate at the Oxford Institute for Ethics in AI, told BI 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 BI, Peter Farrell, who is 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."