Description: Sometime in August 2023, a 13-year-old student at Fairview Middle School in Tennessee was reportedly arrested, strip-searched, and detained overnight after Gaggle's purported AI-powered surveillance system flagged a private online message as a threat. The student's comment, reportedly a joke in context, was sent to law enforcement under a state zero-tolerance law. The incident reportedly resulted in house arrest, alternative school placement, and a lawsuit alleging wrongful arrest.
Editor Notes: Timeline note: The incident ID date of 08/15/2023 is an approximation based on available reporting about the August 2023 arrest of a 13-year-old student in Fairview, Tennessee, following a Gaggle surveillance alert. The exact day of the arrest was not specified in the sourcing. Reporting on this incident appears to have begun 08/08/2025. The incident ID was made 08/10/2025.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Gaggle developed an AI system deployed by Williamson County Schools and Fairview Middle School, Tennessee, which harmed Unnamed 13-year-old student from Fairview, Tennessee.
Alleged implicated AI system: Gaggle
Incident Stats
Incident ID
1167
Report Count
1
Incident Date
2023-08-15
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
Loading...
Lesley Mathis knows what her daughter said was wrong. But she never expected the 13-year-old girl would get arrested for it.
The teenage girl made an offensive joke while chatting online with her classmates, triggering the school's surveill…
Variants
A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
Seen something similar?
Similar Incidents
Did our AI mess up? Flag the unrelated incidents
Similar Incidents
Did our AI mess up? Flag the unrelated incidents