October 18, 2024 By Carol Britton Meyer
At the center of a lawsuit filed by parents of a Hingham High School student against Hingham Public Schools administrators and teachers is their claim that their son’s rights were violated when he was disciplined for using artificial intelligence during the note-taking and draft phase for a history paper.
A hearing on the plaintiff’s motion for preliminary injunction is set for Tuesday, Oct. 22, in Massachusetts District Court.
This case brings to the forefront the ongoing debate revolving around the use of AI in educational settings and how students are engaging with this new technology.
Dale and Jennifer Harris are seeking an order for HPS to expunge the records related to this incident and to change their son’s Advanced Placement History grade to a B in an effort to help restore his excellent academic record — including a grade point average of above 4.0 before the incident. A classmate was also disciplined for using AI on a school project.
In addition to receiving a poor grade for his assignment, the student was given a Saturday detention and was excluded from participation in the National Honor Society. He later reapplied and was inducted this fall.
The incident and resulting penalties — which his parents fear will affect his applications to some of the most prestigious colleges in the country — occurred in November and December of 2023 when he was a junior.
The Harrises’ attorney Peter Farrell told the Hingham Anchor that “this is not a case of parents trying to give teachers a hard time. The Harrises are a longtime Hingham family. The Hingham schools are very good — they also have other children [in the school system].”
Farrell went on to say that this is “a totally organic story. The case itself is one of the first in Massachusetts and in the country to touch on this issue, and it’s important to bring it forward. The adversarial process involves naming parties, including teachers — which isn’t our first preference — but it’s necessary to the case. It’s an important and necessary case for the sake of the student [involved].”
Farrell said the wording related to AI in the 2024-2025 student handbook was not included in the 2023-2024 handbook, at the time the incident occurred. “We believe it was added [recently] because of this case.”
The student read a PowerPoint in English class that addressed AI, “but as I understand it, this is the only time it was discussed in school,” Farrell said. “Nothing in those materials prohibits the use of AI or says if you use it you will be disciplined — including being barred from the National Honor Society — and have it treated as an academic integrity infraction on college applications.”
Farrell went on to say that the part of the 2024-2025 student handbook code of discipline about AI does not constitute a policy “adopted and approved by the school committee. Our position is that [the Hingham Public Schools] still doesn’t have a policy — which is a written document [that involves] stakeholder input — [in this case] from students, parents, faculty, staff, and public comment. A few words in a handbook don’t constitute a policy.”
AI is new and emerging technology widely used by many people on a daily basis, Farrell said, “and an outright ban will never work. [The use of] AI is not plagiarism, and there are scholarly works that say it’s not.”
Page 24 of the 2024-2025 HHS student handbook code of discipline under the subhead “Academic Integrity: Cheating and Plagiarism” addresses the use of AI and is available online at https://core-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/4900/HHS/4719901/Student_Handbook_Code_Discipline_2024_2025.pdf
The Hingham Anchor reached out to School Committee Chair Nes Correnti asking if any HPS policy addresses the use of AI or whether there is anything in the HPS curriculum that does.
“Out of respect for the student’s privacy and due to the ongoing legal proceedings, we are unable to provide any public comment on this matter at this time,” she responded. “The hearing on Tuesday will be open.”