Depending on your point of view, artificial intelligence (AI) is either an exciting technology with almost limitless possibilities that's constantly evolving, or a high-tech thief accessing intellectual property without permission or payment while consuming energy at staggering rates. After their filing of a lawsuit over the use of an AI surveillance program by a school district, it's easy to figure out which side of the argument nine current and former high school students in Kansas are on.
On August 1, 2025, the youthful but determined plaintiffs filed suit against the Lawrence Board of Education, Lawrence Public Schools, and Lawrence High School assistant principal Greg Farley. At issue is the district's use of an AI program called Gaggle, which can access any file in the district's Google Workspace. The suit claims that Gaggle's ability to flag and remove anything it determines to be a safety risk violates the students' First and Fourth Amendment rights and the Kansas Students Publication Act.
Consisting mainly of students involved in journalism, the plaintiffs are seeking a permanent injunction enjoining the Lawrence Schools District from continuing to use Gaggle. They have also requested damages to be determined by the court.
Lifted From the Text of '1984'?
Purchased by the Lawrence School District in August 2023, Gaggle is a third-party AI program that can scan all aspects of Google Workspace, including Google Suite, Gmail accounts, and Google Docs. Gaggle's stated goal is to locate potential mental health issues and alert the administration. It also finds and flags content determined to be inappropriate, such as pornographic images and other sexually explicit material.
According to the lawsuit, issues with Gaggle began to surface soon after the program's implementation in November 2023. Dozens of students found themselves summoned to the principal's office after Gaggle had flagged their artwork as indecent. Administrators were unable to access the images in question, and the students discovered the artwork had been deleted from their accounts. It would take months of pestering the administration before copies the students had saved in locations outside of Lawrence's Google Workplace could be loaded in and reviewed.
Four student staff members of the Budget, Lawrence High School's student newspaper, began investigating what they considered to be the "invasive monitoring software" of Gaggle. Natasha Torkzaban, Maya Smith, Morgan Salisbury, and Jack Tell determined that Gaggle was flagging and intercepting their journalism documents.
In addition, they discovered that when Gaggle flagged an email, it stopped it from being delivered. This meant that an email concerning someone's mental health could be blocked from reaching the person it needed to get to. During a meeting with school officials in early March 2024, the students discovered that Gaggle had scanned over 11 million items related to the district's students in the four month since it was installed. The administration seemed receptive to the idea of keeping Gaggle from monitoring drafts by the school's journalists and to their concerns about the program in general.
However, the tenor of the administration had changed by a meeting on March 29. After assuring the students that they didn't need to bring legal counsel, an attorney with the Kansas Association of School Boards told the students that their complaints "lacked merit" and proposed that the journalists do their work in Microsoft 365 instead.
Outraged, the students took to wearing black armbands in protest as they continued to battle against Gaggle's pervasiveness. The lawsuit alleges that the district later agreed to remove journalism students from Gaggle's surveillance. Despite having graduated in 2024, the four former students became plaintiffs when it became clear the district was not going to fulfill that promise.
The Power of the Press
The students stated that the district argued during the March 29 meeting that the potential lives saved by Gaggle outweighed the journalistic freedoms protected by either the Kansas Students Publication Act or the Kansas Reporter’s Shield Law. They further claimed that one administrator accused them of putting their press rights above the mental health needs of their fellow students.
While their original request was to keep Gaggle out of their journalistic process, the lawsuit instead calls for the full removal of the program from the district. Much may hinge on what rights parents and students may or may not have signed away in permission forms at the beginning of the school year. Given Gaggle's performance so far, the defendants should take extra care to make sure it's not flagging important legal emails.
Related Resources
- Tinker v. Des Moines Case Summary (FindLaw's Supreme Court Insights)
- Legal Reminders for Parents During Back-to-School Season (FindLaw's Law and Daily Life)
- Regulation of the Media Under the First Amendment (FindLaw's First Amendment Primer)
