In Hingham, Massachusetts, the family of a Hingham High School student is suing the school after the student was caught cheating using AI to complete a history paper. The family claims that the school and the student’s teachers attempted to “derail” his future by giving him detention and a bad grade on an essay.
The student used AI to write his paper, and when he was caught he was issued a Saturday detention, and had to rewrite the paper for a grade no higher than a 65. He was also allegedly banned from joining the National Honors Society, a claim which the school denies.
The family’s main argument is that the student did not know he couldn’t use AI to complete his work and that language regarding usage of AI tools was only added to the handbook this year and is vague. They feel that the low grade he was given will ruin his chances of getting into a prestigious college such as Stanford.
“The defendants continued on a pervasive, destructive and merciless path of threats, intimidation and coercion to impact and derail [our son’s] future and his exemplary record,” the Harris family alleges in their lawsuit, which was initially filed in state superior court before being removed to a federal district court.
The school responded that its student handbook prohibits the use of “unauthorized technology” and “unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own work.”
The student’s parents contend that using AI to draft, edit, and research content for an AP US History project, all while not citing the use of AI in the project, is not an “act of dishonesty,” “use of unauthorized technology” or plagiarism – “unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own work.”
The district said in a recent motion to dismiss that the discipline administered to the student was “relatively lenient” and that a ruling to the contrary would “invite dissatisfied parents and students to challenge day-to-day discipline, even grading of students, in state and federal courts.”
The lawsuit also questions whether using AI to complete assignments should be prohibited at all. It notes that the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education hasn’t issued any rules or guidance for schools on the use of the technology.
This is an issue that schools everywhere are grappling with. It has become commonplace for students to use AI tools to complete assignments. AI isn’t going anywhere but students need to be taught how to use them for help, not use them to complete the entire assignment for them.