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School did nothing wrong when it punished student for using AI, court rules (arstechnica.com)

submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Student "indiscriminately copied and pasted text," including AI hallucinations.

A federal court yesterday ruled against parents who sued a Massachusetts school district for punishing their son who used an artificial intelligence tool to complete an assignment.

Dale and Jennifer Harris sued Hingham High School officials and the School Committee and sought a preliminary injunction requiring the school to change their son's grade and expunge the incident from his disciplinary record before he needs to submit college applications. The parents argued that there was no rule against using AI in the student handbook, but school officials said the student violated multiple policies.

The Harris' motion for an injunction was rejected in an order issued yesterday from US District Court for the District of Massachusetts. US Magistrate Judge Paul Levenson found that school officials "have the better of the argument on both the facts and the law."

"On the facts, there is nothing in the preliminary factual record to suggest that HHS officials were hasty in concluding that RNH [the Harris' son, referred to by his initials] had cheated," Levenson wrote. "Nor were the consequences Defendants imposed so heavy-handed as to exceed Defendants' considerable discretion in such matters."

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The student was a Junior in high school, 16-17 years old. We don't need to destroy them to get the message across. Being overly punitive is "an" option, but not one that I would support. Sure if the only options are fail the class or sue the school to overturn the grade, I choose fail the class. However I prefer an option in the middle.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Failing the class they cheated in isn't destroying them. It's not overly punitive.

It's the absolute bare minimum that constitutes any consequences for their actions at all.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I think we're at an agree to disagree point, but let's continue with your proposal.

It they fail a class what's next? Is there an opportunity to make it up within that year? Is summer school an option? Do they need to repeat their Junior year?

If they can make it up somehow within that year, I'm ok with that. If summer school is on the table, I'm willing to hear that out. If someone needs to repeat their entire Junior year? That seems overly punitive.

I don't think cheating as a 16-17 year old warrants having to repeat a year. I think depending on what's involved in summer school and depending on what the student has planned, it could be fair but it might be overkill.

I think a 16-17 year old kid deserves a fair chance to correct the mistake. Maybe I'm being overly generous, maybe he's a whiny piece of shit. Maybe he's just a kid who didn't fully understand the technology he was using. This should be a conversation between parent, teacher and student.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Students have different schedules all the time. Failing classes is part of reality. There are ways to make back the time. None are pleasant, but he brought it entirely on himself by being a cheater.

Literally nothing short of failing the class can result in the student "correcting the mistake". It's actively rewarding extremely unacceptable behavior.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

Yeah, we're in an agree to disagree situation. I don't think either of us have enough information. I'm not confident failing the class is needed. Obviously this going to court is too far, and I agree with the court le decision, but in terms of punishment I don't feel failure of the class is needed, given the information available. I'm not against it given a more detailed write up if the incident, but I would need to see a lot more information.