A federal judge sided with the Town of Hingham School Committee and other defendants in a lawsuit filed by parents Dale and Jennifer Harris after their son got a “D” on a project for using AI.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Levenson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts found that “there is nothing in the preliminary factual record to suggest that HHS officials were hasty in concluding that RNH had cheated,” and that the defendants’ docking of his grade did not exceed their discretion per court documents filed Wednesday.
The student, named only as RNH in court documents, got the grade on an Advanced Placement U.S. History project as a junior after he and an unnamed partner who is not a party in the lawsuit used artificial intelligence before writing about basketball star and activist Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
School officials said the use of AI constituted cheating.
The plaintiffs argued that the section on cheating and plagiarism in the Hingham High School handbook for 2023-2024, the school year in which the project was assigned, did not have any mention of AI, as opposed to the updated 2024-2025 handbook.
The Harris’ sought a preliminary injunction to force the school and other defendants to change RNH’s grade in the class for the year to a “B,” to expunge any mention of academic sanction from his record and to stop referring to RNH’s use of AI as cheating among other requests.
SEE ALSO: Parents suing school system to have son’s grade restored after getting a ‘D’ for using AI
In his ruling to deny the injunction, Judge Levenson noted that entirely fictitious sources provided by Grammarly, including a book by a “Jane Doe” were included in the students’ project.
On top of siding with the defendants when it came to their handling of the school project, the judge also wrote that “it is doubtful that the Court has any role in second-guessing the judgments of teachers and school officials who are responsible for grading and disciplinary decisions, particularly discipline short of suspension.”
One of the demands in the motion for the injunction, that RNH no longer be barred from the National Honor Society, was fulfilled when it was found that other students elsewhere had been allowed to apply despite their own use of AI.
“We respect the court’s order issued [yesterday] afternoon. The plaintiff’s Motion for Preliminary Injunction is just that — preliminary. The factual record is underdeveloped … and no discovery has yet been conducted,” the Harris’ attorney Peter Farrell told the Hingham Anchor local news site.
The lawsuit will continue and the plaintiffs “look forward to further developing the factual record by conducting discovery and continuing to ask probing questions,” Mr. Farrell added.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.