--- title: "Parents Sue School for Punishing Their Son for Copy-Pasting AI Homework, Get Rude Wakeup Call" description: "In the lawsuit, the parents argue that their son didn't break any rules by using an AI tool in his school project." date: "2024-11-23" modified: "2024-11-23" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/parents-sue-school-ai-homework" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai chatbots" - "education" - "generative ai" - "the digest" --- # Parents Sue School for Punishing Their Son for Copy-Pasting AI Homework, Get Rude Wakeup Call ![]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Parent Terrible A boy attending Hingham High School in Massachusetts got caught red-handed copying and pasting answers generated by an AI chatbot into his homework assignment, earning him a failing grade and a stint in detention. (Mercifully, he was allowed to redo the parts he cheated on.) His mom and dad, though, decided that this was some sort of cosmic injustice. Rather than use this as an opportunity to teach their kid about the [wrongs of plagiarism](), the parents — Dale and Jennifer Harris — fearful of their son's college prospects, threatened to sue the school. The couple probably expected the school's administrators to cave to the fear of litigation — but they didn't. The case has gone to court, and unfortunately for the boy's overbearing parents, isn't exactly going their way, [*Ars Technica* reports](). ## Not So Fast As part of their lawsuit, the Harris family filed a motion demanding that the judge issue an injunction to the school that would force it to remove the incident from their son's disciplinary record, and to give the boy, only identified by his initials RNH in the court documents, a better grade. Because, as Jennifer argued, "they basically punished him for a rule that doesn't exist," she [told *WCVB*]() last month. The judge presiding over the case, Paul Levenson at the Massachusetts District Court, didn't see it that way. On Monday, he issued an order that shot down their motion for an injunction. "On the facts, there is nothing in the preliminary factual record to suggest that HHS officials were hasty in concluding that RNH had cheated," Levenson wrote in the order, as quoted by *Ars*. According to the court order, the kiddo submitted a script for a school project that lifted entire passages of texts generated by an AI tool provided by the popular grammar checker Grammarly. He was caught after the AI detector Turnitin — itself [not without issues]() — flagged his work, leading his history teacher to look through it more carefully. Among other damning clues, she found that the text cited nonexistent sources — a [common form of AI hallucinations](). RNH didn't say that he used Grammarly or any other AI tool when he turned in his work. ## Spelling It Out What's striking is that the parents don't deny that their kid used a large language model, though they maintain he simply used it for research instead of straight up cribbing its work. Instead, they argue — rather speciously — that the school's student handbook didn't explicitly forbid the use of AI, per *WCVB*. While technically true, the handbook does forbid unauthorized uses of technology in general, according to *Ars*. Firing back, the school also said that every student was given a copy of its AI policy, which *does* explicitly proscribe the use of AI tools for most types of school work and examinations. It sounds like a pretty open and shut case, but the lawsuit is still ongoing. As *Ars* notes, however, the fact that Levenson shot down the injunction is a sign that he thinks the defendants have the stronger case. **More on AI:** *[OpenAI "Accidentally" Deleted Evidence From Its New York Times Lawsuit]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()