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Incident 1213: Gaggle AI Monitoring at Lawrence, Kansas High School Reportedly Misflags Student Content and Blocks Emails

Description: In Lawrence, Kansas, students allege the Gaggle Safety Management AI wrongly flagged benign schoolwork, including art photos and casual messages, as child pornography or threats. The system reportedly deleted content, blocked an email records request, and led to questioning of students. Critics cite chilling effects and privacy risks. A lawsuit filed in August 2025 challenges the district's use of Gaggle as unconstitutional surveillance. Gaggle reportedly denies compromising privacy.
Editor Notes: The underlying reported events associated with this case occurred during the Lawrence Public Schools' deployment of the Gaggle Safety Management system between late 2023 and 2024. Specific reported harms include the misclassification and deletion of student art, the blocking of a records request, and questioning of students for flagged content. The federal lawsuit challenging the district's use of Gaggle was filed on 08/01/2025, which is taken here as the incident date of record. Subsequent coverage by The Washington Post on 09/24/2025 summarized the allegations and student accounts. This report was ingested into the AI Incident Database on 09/29/2025.

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Alleged: Gaggle developed an AI system deployed by Lawrence Public Schools (USD 497), which harmed Lawrence Public Schools (USD 497) students.
Alleged implicated AI system: Gaggle

Incident Stats

Incident ID
1213
Report Count
1
Incident Date
2025-08-01
Editors
Daniel Atherton

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

Incident OccurrenceAI safety tool sparks student backlash after flagging art as porn, deleting emails
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AI safety tool sparks student backlash after flagging art as porn, deleting emails

AI safety tool sparks student backlash after flagging art as porn, deleting emails

washingtonpost.com

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AI safety tool sparks student backlash after flagging art as porn, deleting emails
washingtonpost.com · 2025

Students at a Kansas high school sometimes worry as they write class presentations or emails to their teachers. They stop and consider their words. They ask each other: "Will this get Gaggled?"

Anything students at Lawrence High write or up…

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.
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