{"id":129468,"date":"2025-08-04T14:43:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T22:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/08\/04\/student-sue-school-for-using-ai-to-snoop-through-their-emails\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T14:43:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T22:43:21","slug":"student-sue-school-for-using-ai-to-snoop-through-their-emails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/08\/04\/student-sue-school-for-using-ai-to-snoop-through-their-emails\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Sue School For Using AI To Snoop Through Their Emails"},"content":{"rendered":"

Should the principal of a public school be able to go into a student\u2019s locker and open their sealed letters whenever they want to? Probably not. Opening the locker is fair game \u2014 that belongs to the school after all, but barring some exigent circumstances, students should have a reasonable expectation of privacy with regard to snooping in their messages. Right? A recent case out of Kansas is testing that common sense assumption about student privacy at public schools. Lawrence Times<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n

\n

Nine current and former students have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Lawrence Public Schools, alleging the district\u2019s use of a controversial AI surveillance tool violates student privacy.<\/p>\n

The AI tool, called Gaggle, sifts through anything connected to the district\u2019s Google Workspace \u2014 which includes Gmail, Drive and other products \u2014 and flags content it deems a safety risk, such as allusions to self-harm, depression, drug use and violence. But Gaggle also censors \u201cmessages containing innocuous phrases such as \u2018called me a,\u2019 \u2018called her a,\u2019 \u2018very uncomfortable,\u2019 and \u2018my mental health\u2019,\u201d the lawsuit alleges.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Should be an open and shut case right? Well, it gets worse \u2014 the lawsuit alleges that the tool was used to intercept attempts at student journalism:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cStudents\u2019 journalism drafts were intercepted before publication, mental health emails to trusted teachers disappeared, and original artwork was seized from school accounts without warning or explanation,\u201d said Harrison M. Rosenthal, an attorney representing the students.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

You may wonder how this should pan out considering that it\u2019s an AI program opening the emails instead of a zealous principal. The hope is that AI doing the filtering shouldn\u2019t change the nature of the peeping in any real way given that it is being done on the district\u2019s behalf. And if some judge bungles this case up and rules in the school\u2019s favor, it could set precedent for other public high schools, or even colleges, to use AI to snoop through their students\u2019 communications. Given that we\u2019ve already crossed the \u201cyou face deportation for writing opinion pieces contrary to state doxa<\/a>\u201d part of the alt-right take over<\/a>, the chilling effect that that could have on student journalists nationwide is mind-boggling. In the meantime, the Kansas students would probably be better off communicating on Signal or \u2014 God forbid \u2014 using pen and paper.<\/p>\n

In Federal Lawsuit, Students Allege Lawrence School District\u2019s AI Surveillance Tool Violates Their Rights<\/a> [Lawrence Times]<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: 2nd Circuit Orders Return Of Vermont Grad Student Abducted By ICE Because She Wrote An Article They Didn\u2019t Like<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0cwilliams@abovethelaw.com<\/a> and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Student Sue School For Using AI To Snoop Through Their Emails<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Should the principal of a public school be able to go into a student\u2019s locker and open their sealed letters whenever they want to? Probably not. Opening the locker is fair game \u2014 that belongs to the school after all, but barring some exigent circumstances, students should have a reasonable expectation of privacy with regard to snooping in their messages. Right? A recent case out of Kansas is testing that common sense assumption about student privacy at public schools. Lawrence Times<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n

\n

Nine current and former students have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Lawrence Public Schools, alleging the district\u2019s use of a controversial AI surveillance tool violates student privacy.<\/p>\n

The AI tool, called Gaggle, sifts through anything connected to the district\u2019s Google Workspace \u2014 which includes Gmail, Drive and other products \u2014 and flags content it deems a safety risk, such as allusions to self-harm, depression, drug use and violence. But Gaggle also censors \u201cmessages containing innocuous phrases such as \u2018called me a,\u2019 \u2018called her a,\u2019 \u2018very uncomfortable,\u2019 and \u2018my mental health\u2019,\u201d the lawsuit alleges.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Should be an open and shut case right? Well, it gets worse \u2014 the lawsuit alleges that the tool was used to intercept attempts at student journalism:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cStudents\u2019 journalism drafts were intercepted before publication, mental health emails to trusted teachers disappeared, and original artwork was seized from school accounts without warning or explanation,\u201d said Harrison M. Rosenthal, an attorney representing the students.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

You may wonder how this should pan out considering that it\u2019s an AI program opening the emails instead of a zealous principal. The hope is that AI doing the filtering shouldn\u2019t change the nature of the peeping in any real way given that it is being done on the district\u2019s behalf. And if some judge bungles this case up and rules in the school\u2019s favor, it could set precedent for other public high schools, or even colleges, to use AI to snoop through their students\u2019 communications. Given that we\u2019ve already crossed the \u201cyou face deportation for writing opinion pieces contrary to state doxa<\/a>\u201d part of the alt-right take over<\/a>, the chilling effect that that could have on student journalists nationwide is mind-boggling. In the meantime, the Kansas students would probably be better off communicating on Signal or \u2014 God forbid \u2014 using pen and paper.<\/p>\n

In Federal Lawsuit, Students Allege Lawrence School District\u2019s AI Surveillance Tool Violates Their Rights<\/a> [Lawrence Times]<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: 2nd Circuit Orders Return Of Vermont Grad Student Abducted By ICE Because She Wrote An Article They Didn\u2019t Like<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0[email\u00a0protected]<\/a> and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Should the principal of a public school be able to go into a student\u2019s locker and open their sealed letters whenever they want to? Probably not. Opening the locker is fair game \u2014 that belongs to the school after all, but barring some exigent circumstances, students should have a reasonable expectation of privacy with regard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":129441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Chris-Williams-2025-N7doCm.jpg?fit=512%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}