Should
the
principal
of
a
public
school
be
able
to
go
into
a
student’s
locker
and
open
their
sealed
letters
whenever
they
want
to?
Probably
not.
Opening
the
locker
is
fair
game
—
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
has
coverage:
Nine
current
and
former
students
have
filed
a
federal
civil
rights
lawsuit
against
Lawrence
Public
Schools,
alleging
the
district’s
use
of
a
controversial
AI
surveillance
tool
violates
student
privacy.The
AI
tool,
called
Gaggle,
sifts
through
anything
connected
to
the
district’s
Workspace
—
which
includes
Gmail,
Drive
and
other
products
—
and
flags
content
it
deems
a
safety
risk,
such
as
allusions
to
self-harm,
depression,
drug
use
and
violence.
But
Gaggle
also
censors
“messages
containing
innocuous
phrases
such
as
‘called
me
a,’
‘called
her
a,’
‘very
uncomfortable,’
and
‘my
mental
health’,”
the
lawsuit
alleges.
Should
be
an
open
and
shut
case
right?
Well,
it
gets
worse
—
the
lawsuit
alleges
that
the
tool
was
used
to
intercept
attempts
at
student
journalism:
“Students’
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,”
said
Harrison
M.
Rosenthal,
an
attorney
representing
the
students.
You
may
wonder
how
this
should
pan
out
considering
that
it’s
an
AI
program
opening
the
emails
instead
of
a
zealous
principal.
The
hope
is
that
AI
doing
the
filtering
shouldn’t
change
the
nature
of
the
peeping
in
any
real
way
given
that
it
is
being
done
on
the
district’s
behalf.
And
if
some
judge
bungles
this
case
up
and
rules
in
the
school’s
favor,
it
could
set
precedent
for
other
public
high
schools,
or
even
colleges,
to
use
AI
to
snoop
through
their
students’
communications.
Given
that
we’ve
already
crossed
the
“you
face
deportation
for
writing
opinion
pieces
contrary
to
state
doxa”
part
of
the
alt-right
take
over,
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
—
God
forbid
—
using
pen
and
paper.
In
Federal
Lawsuit,
Students
Allege
Lawrence
School
District’s
AI
Surveillance
Tool
Violates
Their
Rights
[Lawrence
Times]
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™
in
the
Facebook
group Law
School
Memes
for
Edgy
T14s
.
He
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, is
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 [email protected]
and
by
tweet
at @WritesForRent.