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Low reported severity

Nashville school district fired a teacher after students reported he made AI videos of them without consent, a district termination letter says

NewsChannel 5 (WTVF) reported on 29 July 2026 that Metro Nashville Public Schools fired a tenured high school teacher after students reported him taking pictures of them and making AI videos of them without their consent. According to the station, a 7 July termination letter from the superintendent describes student reports, all brought to the school's attention during the spring 2026 semester, that included AI videos of male students doing a 'gay or zesty dance' or a 'feminine dance', as well as inappropriate comments, photographs taken on his personal phone and texts asking students where they were after school hours. The letter says the principal reported him to police and to the Department of Children's Services, which is investigating. The teacher can appeal through the district's termination hearing process. The report does not say which AI tool was used, how many students were depicted or how the videos were shared.

AI system
Unidentified video tool
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
29 July 2026
Event location
United States
What the AI did
Depicted or impersonated the person
Reported harm
Exploitation or Abuse
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Education
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source
5 claims: 5 reported. 3 open questions
People reported harmed
Not reliably quantifiable from the sources

AI system as recorded: An unidentified AI tool that the teacher used to make videos of students, as described in the district's termination letter reported by NewsChannel 5

What Happened

The termination. NewsChannel 5 reports that a tenured teacher at a Metro Nashville public high school 'was fired after students reported him taking pictures of them and making AI videos of them without their consent', as set out in a 7 July letter from the superintendent.

The student reports. According to the station, students reported incidents including 'making AI videos of male students doing things like a "gay or zesty dance" or a "feminine dance"', taking pictures of students with his personal phone, inappropriate comments and texts asking where students were after school hours. The letter says these came to the school's attention during the spring 2026 semester.

Other proceedings. The letter says the principal reported him to police and the Department of Children's Services, and that DCS investigations are under way. The station also reports an earlier unpaid suspension in January 2026 for other conduct described in the letter. The letter describes several incidents, and the AI videos are one of them.

Limits. One local television report describing a district letter that was not itself inspected. The AI tool, the number of students depicted and whether the videos were shared are not reported, and the teacher's response is not reported.

Reported harm

Students reported that a teacher made AI videos of male students doing a 'gay or zesty dance' or a 'feminine dance' without their consent; the district fired him on several grounds including these reports (NewsChannel 5, describing the district's termination letter).

Outcome

Ongoing

The district terminated the teacher by a letter dated 7 July 2026. The principal reported him to police and to the Department of Children's Services, whose investigations were ongoing at the time of the report. A district spokesperson said he can appeal through the termination hearing process.

What remains unknown

  • Which AI tool was used and how the videos were made from the students' images.
  • How many students were depicted and whether the videos were shared beyond the teacher.
  • The teacher's account and the outcome of any appeal, of the principal's report to police and of the DCS investigations.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The district's termination letter, as reported by NewsChannel 5, describes students reporting that the teacher made AI videos of male students doing a 'gay or zesty dance' or a 'feminine dance' without their consent. The AI tool generated videos depicting the students, and the students' reports of that depiction were among the grounds for his dismissal. The tool is not identified and the videos were not inspected. The report does not say how the students, the school or the district established that the videos were made with AI.

5 claims: 5 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported Metro Nashville Public Schools terminated a tenured high school teacher, according to a 7 July 2026 letter described by NewsChannel 5.

Causal attribution. The station's report of the district letter.

  • newschannel5.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'was terminated from his position as a tenured teacher in Metro Nashville Public Schools, a July 7 letter to him revealed'
Reported Students reported that the teacher made AI videos of them without their consent, including videos of male students doing a 'gay or zesty dance' or a 'feminine dance'.

Causal attribution. Student reports as described in the district letter, relayed by the station.

  • newschannel5.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'fired after students reported him taking pictures of them and making AI videos of them without their consent'; 'making AI videos of male students doing things like a "gay or zesty dance" or a "feminine dance"'
Reported The student reports, which also concerned inappropriate comments, photographs on his personal phone and after-hours texts, came to the school's attention during the spring 2026 semester.

Causal attribution. The district letter as described by the station.

Reported The principal reported the teacher to police and the Department of Children's Services, and DCS investigations into his conduct were under way.

Causal attribution. The district letter as described by the station.

Reported A district spokesperson said the teacher can appeal through the termination hearing process and that the district gives staff guidance on appropriate AI use, including expectations for student photos.

Causal attribution. The district spokesperson's statement to the station.

  • newschannel5.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'will have the opportunity to appeal through the established termination hearing process'; 'MNPS provides guidance to staff regarding the appropriate use of artificial intelligence, including expectations for student photos and graphics'

Sources

1 source inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in English: the article text in full, including its JSON-LD article body. The district's termination letter that the station describes was not inspected. Applies to s1.

Event countries: United States. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: Unknown.

The school is in Metro Nashville Public Schools, Tennessee, and the report is datelined Nashville.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-12: Published as a concrete school case in which students reported that a teacher made AI videos depicting them without consent, recorded in a district termination letter described by a local television station. The teacher and the students are not named in this record.

People described

Male students at a Metro Nashville public high school who were depicted in the AI videos

People reported harmed in this case

Not reliably quantifiable from the sources

The report refers to 'male students' depicted in AI videos without giving a number; the plural is not an explicit lower bound, so no count is recorded.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#school#teacher-dismissal#ai-video#non-consensual-depiction#tennessee

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Nashville school district fired a teacher after students reported he made AI videos of them without consent, a district termination letter says. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-nashville-teacher-fired-after-students-report-ai-videos-of-them-without-consent

BibTeX

@misc{2026_nashville_teacher_fired_after_students_report_ai_videos_of_them_without_consent,
  title = {Nashville school district fired a teacher after students reported he made AI videos of them without consent, a district termination letter says},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-nashville-teacher-fired-after-students-report-ai-videos-of-them-without-consent}
}

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