A federal judge has ruled that a Massachusetts school was likely within its rights to discipline a student who used generative artificial intelligence

Judge Rules in Favor of School That Gave Student a Bad Grade for Using AI

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2024-11-24 18:00:04

A federal judge has ruled that a Massachusetts school was likely within its rights to discipline a student who used generative artificial intelligence to complete an assignment.

Jennifer and Dale Harris, the student’s parents, sued the town of Hingham’s school committee earlier this year, arguing that the high school’s policies prohibiting academic dishonesty did not explicitly say that students couldn’t use AI. They asked the federal district court to issue a preliminary injunction that would remove the detention their son received from his academic record and to raise his grade in the A.P. History class where he cheated from a C-plus to a B.

“There is nothing in the preliminary factual record to suggest that [Hingham High School] officials were hasty in concluding that [the Harris’s son] had cheated,” Judge Paul Levenson wrote in an order denying the family’s request for a preliminary injunction against the district. “Nor were the consequences Defendants imposed so heavy-handed as to exceed Defendants’ considerable discretion in such matters.”

Another student who partnered with the plaintiffs’ son on the project and was also disciplined for cheating did not sue the school district.