{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-27T05:42:27.079Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"school-monitoring","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":2,"coverage":{"cases":2,"countries":1,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":0,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":1,"regulatory":0,"minors":1,"coreRelations":0,"contextualRelations":2,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2024-lawrence-kansas-gaggle-ai-flagged-students-class-photos-as-child-sexual-images-pupils-questioned-photos-removed","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'In November 2023, USD 497 and its Board of Education implemented the use of Gaggle'; 'Gaggle operates through artificial intelligence that flags items for review. Gaggle moderators conduct a brief contextual review to determine the propriety of the content at issue and quarantine the item unless the flag is deemed a false positive.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'challenges the district’s 2023 decision to use a third-party artificial intelligence-powered software service called Gaggle to monitor student usage of district-issued computers'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"The Lawrence school district began using Gaggle to monitor student school accounts in November 2023; the plaintiffs' complaint says Gaggle operates through artificial intelligence that flags items for review by Gaggle moderators.","causal_attribution":"The complaint's description of the system; the newspaper describes the service the same way. Gaggle's own account of how the flag arose is not in the inspected sources."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'In early 2024, District administrators summoned art, journalism, and photography students to the front office at Lawrence High School for questioning.'; 'administrators told the group that their images had been flagged by Gaggle for indecent exposure and child pornography.'; 'admitted they had not seen the content at issue, but rather, that they were informed second-hand by Gaggle that the content had been flagged.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'told the group that Gaggle had flagged their images for indecent exposure and child pornography.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"According to the complaint, in early 2024 administrators summoned art, journalism and photography students to the front office and told them their images had been flagged by Gaggle for indecent exposure and child pornography, while admitting they had not seen the flagged content themselves.","causal_attribution":"Plaintiffs' allegations; the court's order summarises the amended complaint and does not find these facts."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'of having photos or documents on her computer that constituted indecent exposure or child pornography.'; 'she had uploaded a photography assignment that included a picture of one of her friends who was fully clothed and wearing a spaghetti-strap tank top.'; 'to recall and explain from memory minute details regarding the photographs she had taken, but she was not allowed to view or display those photos.'; 'her detention and interrogation by Assistant Principal'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"According to the complaint, an assistant principal accused a photography student of having images constituting indecent exposure or child pornography, refused to let her view the images, and questioned her about them from memory; she told him she had uploaded that day a photography assignment showing a fully clothed friend.","causal_attribution":"A plaintiff's account in the complaint."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'determined that the flagged content consisted of original artistic photographs taken and uploaded for class assignments.'; 'discovered that multiple digital photographs had been removed from their school accounts.'; 'would trigger additional scrutiny, interrogations, deletions, and/or discipline.'; 'and other students later confirmed the seizures by comparing their school accounts to independent backup drives.'; 'was subsequently required to meet with District staff and explain each image in her photography portfolio.'; 'Only after months of student advocacy did the District restore the removed images.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"According to the complaint, the flagged content consisted of original photographs taken for class assignments; the photographs were removed from the students' school accounts without notice, the students found this by comparing their accounts with personal backups, one student had to explain each image in her portfolio to district staff and became concerned that future assignments would trigger more scrutiny, and the district restored the images only after months of advocacy.","causal_attribution":"Plaintiffs' allegations; the removal is also reported by AP (c5)."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Students in one photography class were called to the principal's office over concerns Gaggle had detected nudity. The photos had been automatically deleted from the students' Google Drives, but students who had backups of the flagged images on their own devices showed it was a false alarm. District officials said they later adjusted the software's settings to reduce false alerts.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"'Students in one photography class were called to the principal’s office over concerns Gaggle had detected nudity.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"The Associated Press reported that students in a photography class were called to the principal's office over concerns Gaggle had detected nudity, that the photos had been automatically deleted from their Google Drives, that students with backups showed it was a false alarm, and that district officials said they later adjusted the software's settings to reduce false alerts.","causal_attribution":"AP's reporting, relayed by the Journal-World from AP's review; the settings change is the district officials' statement to AP. Both outlets carry one AP origin."},{"id":"c6","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'Plaintiffs have not cited (and the Court has not found) any law that when AI surveillance flags student material as potentially criminal, a school official cannot reasonably rely on that information to call in a student for questioning.'; 'the claims for injunctive and declaratory relief of the graduated students, the claims against the School Board and, based on qualified immunity, all claims against'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"On 8 April 2026 the court dismissed, on qualified immunity, all claims against the assistant principal and another official, saying it had found no law that when AI surveillance flags student material as potentially criminal a school official cannot reasonably rely on it to call in a student for questioning; it also dismissed the graduated students' claims for injunctive and declaratory relief and the claims against the school board.","causal_attribution":"The court's ruling; it decides qualified immunity on the pleadings and makes no finding on whether the flags were accurate."},{"id":"c7","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'Date of Last Known Filing: Oct. 26, 2026'; 'Notice to Take Deposition'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"}],"assertion":"The case remained open in late October 2026, with depositions noticed and a last known filing on 26 October 2026.","causal_attribution":"Docket record."}],"effects":[{"label":"students questioned over an AI flag calling their class photography indecent exposure or child pornography, with their photographs removed for months","claim_id":"c4","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ksd.159249/gov.uscourts.ksd.159249.1.0.pdf","kind":"court_filing","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-27; no translation.","independence_group":"dkan-2-25-cv-02428-complaint"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ksd.159249/gov.uscourts.ksd.159249.56.0.pdf","kind":"court_order","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-27; no translation.","independence_group":"dkan-2-25-cv-02428-order"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/schools-using-ai-surveillance-protect-110342650.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-27; no translation.","independence_group":"ap-gaggle-2025"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://www2.ljworld.com/news/schools/2025/aug/07/lawrence-school-district-sued-in-federal-court-for-use-of-ai-powered-surveillance-system-students-claim-gaggle-results-in-illegal-searches/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-27; no translation.","independence_group":"ljworld-2025-08-07"},{"id":"s5","url":"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70989873/","kind":"court_docket","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-27; no translation.","independence_group":"courtlistener-docket"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["institutional_use"],"contexts":["education","public_services","privacy","justice"],"unknowns":["Exactly when in early 2024 the questioning took place and how many students were summoned.","Whether Gaggle's human moderators reviewed the specific photographs before the district was notified, and what they concluded.","Whether the photographs were removed automatically by Gaggle or by a reviewer; AP says automatically deleted, the complaint describes moderator quarantine.","Gaggle's and the district's responses to these specific allegations in the litigation.","The outcome of the remaining claims against the district."],"geography":{"basis":"The complaint places the questioning at a Lawrence, Kansas, high school of the district's own school accounts; the suit is in the federal District of Kansas.","court_countries":["US"],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a school's use of an AI monitoring flag about students: the complaint and AP describe Gaggle flagging photography students' class images as nudity or child pornography, the students' questioning and the removal of their work, district officials told AP it was a false alarm, and a federal court has ruled on the official's reliance on the AI flag.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-27"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The complaint says Gaggle operates through artificial intelligence that flags items for review and that administrators told the students their images had been flagged by Gaggle for indecent exposure and child pornography, then questioned them without having seen the images; AP reports Gaggle detected nudity in the photography class's uploads, that district officials called it a false alarm and adjusted the software's settings, and the court's order treats the flag as an AI surveillance flag on which the official relied. Gaggle moderators review flags before schools are notified, and no inspected source says what each reviewer saw.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["made_claim_about","informed_decision_about"]},"name":"Lawrence, Kansas: students say Gaggle AI monitoring flagged class photography as child sexual images, leading to questioning and removed work","summary":"The Lawrence, Kansas, school district began using Gaggle, a student-monitoring service, on school accounts in November 2023. A federal lawsuit filed on 1 August 2025 by current and former students alleges that Gaggle, which the complaint says operates through artificial intelligence that flags items for review by Gaggle moderators, flagged original photography assignments uploaded by art and photography students. According to the complaint, in early 2024 security officers took students out of class to the front office of a Lawrence high school, where administrators told them their images had been flagged by Gaggle for indecent exposure and child pornography; an assistant principal accused a photography student of having such material, refused to let her view the images, and questioned her about them from memory, and administrators admitted they had not seen the flagged content. The student told them she had uploaded that day a photography assignment showing a fully clothed friend; the complaint says the flagged content consisted of original photographs taken for class assignments, that students found their photographs removed from their school accounts only by comparing them with personal backups, that one student had to explain each image in her portfolio to district staff and became concerned that future assignments would bring more scrutiny, and that the district restored the images only after months of advocacy. The Associated Press, in reporting that included an analysis of the district's Gaggle alert records, said the photos had been automatically deleted and that students with backups showed it was a false alarm, and that district officials said they later adjusted the software's settings to reduce false alerts. On 8 April 2026 the federal court dismissed, on qualified immunity, the claims against the assistant principal and another official, saying it had found no law establishing that a school official cannot rely on an AI surveillance flag to call in a student for questioning; other claims against the district continue, and the docket shows depositions noticed in October 2026.","incidentDate":"2024-01-01","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"year","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2025-08-01","aiSystem":"Gaggle Safety Management, a student-monitoring service that scans school email and files; the complaint says it operates through artificial intelligence that flags items for review by Gaggle moderators, and the district's board agenda described trained safety experts and an algorithm","aiProduct":"Gaggle","aiCompany":"Gaggle.Net, Inc.","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["educational_harm","psychological_distress"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"According to the plaintiffs' complaint, students were taken out of class and questioned after Gaggle flagged their photography assignments as indecent exposure or child pornography, their photographs were removed from their school accounts without notice and restored only after months, one student had to explain every image in her portfolio, and she became concerned that future assignments would bring more scrutiny. District officials told the Associated Press it was a false alarm and that settings were adjusted.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":2,"affectedCountStatus":"partial","affectedCountEvidence":"Two photography students who are plaintiffs describe being questioned and having photographs removed (complaint paras 93 to 126). The complaint and AP describe other art, journalism and photography students summoned or flagged without a count, so they are not quantified. The 1,200 alerts in AP's records analysis are alerts, not harmed people, and are not counted.","victimAgeRange":"unknown","jurisdiction":"US","platformType":"other","outcomeType":"lawsuit_ongoing","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ksd.159249/gov.uscourts.ksd.159249.1.0.pdf","primarySourceLabel":"Students' complaint against the Lawrence school district over Gaggle, D. Kan. 2:25-cv-02428, filed 1 August 2025","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-27T03:08:48.076061+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-27T03:08:48.076061+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["gaggle","school-monitoring","student-surveillance","false-flag","photography","qualified-immunity","kansas"]},{"id":"2025-deltona-florida-gaggle-alert-student-arrest-school-laptop-threat","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Deputies said a 15-year-old wrote a threat on his school laptop to bring a gun to ... and shoot another student.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"The threat triggered a Gaggle alert, which notified the school resource deputy, who responded and detained the teen before he got on the bus to go home.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"That threat triggered a Gaggle alert and immediately notified the school resource deputy.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"On 12 September 2025 a 15-year-old high school student in Deltona, Florida was detained after typing a threat on a school-issued laptop to bring a gun to school and shoot another student, and a Gaggle alert notified the school resource deputy, who detained the student before boarding the bus home.","causal_attribution":"Police account relayed by two outlets that trace to one Sheriff's Office statement. The alert is reported as the trigger of the deputy's response."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Both students were arrested on second-degree felony charges and transported to the Volusia Family Resource Center for processing.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"They will be charged with second-degree felony charges, VSO said.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The student was arrested on a second-degree felony charge.","causal_attribution":"Arrest follows the alert and detention in the police account. The source does not separate the alert from the content of the text as cause. Fox 35 says the students 'will be charged'; the filed charge is not confirmed."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"The teen admitted he typed the threat, didn’t mean it, and was just angry about being picked on.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The student admitted typing the threat, said it was not meant, and said the motive was anger about being picked on.","causal_attribution":"Reported statement from the Sheriff's Office. It is not an independent account by the student or family."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"With the help of artificial intelligence , technology can dip into online conversations and immediately notify both school officials and law enforcement.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"Associated Press reporting describes school-monitoring software 'like Gaggle and Lightspeed Alert' as using artificial intelligence to watch students' online conversations and notify school officials and law enforcement.","causal_attribution":"Description of a software class. It does not establish the mechanism of the alert in this case."}],"effects":[{"label":"Felony arrest of a minor following an automated alert","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.wesh.com/article/volusia-county-school-threats-mental-health-awareness/66929047","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Body read from a Wayback capture of the same URL because the live page returned 451.","independence_group":"vso-volusia-2025-09-12"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/two-volusia-county-students-arrested-school-threats-officials-say","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"","independence_group":"vso-volusia-2025-09-12"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/schools-using-ai-surveillance-protect-110342650.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Associated Press investigation on AI school surveillance, cited only for the description of software like Gaggle. It does not mention this student.","independence_group":"ap-ai-surveillance-2025"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["institutional_use"],"contexts":["education","justice"],"unknowns":["Whether the alert in this case was generated by an AI model, by keyword rules, or reviewed by a Gaggle or school human reviewer before reaching the deputy.","Outcome of the felony charge, any court or school discipline, and the family's account.","The Sheriff's Office statement (a Facebook post per Fox 35) was read only through outlet rewrites.","Whether the student's family disputes the arrest is not reported."],"geography":{"basis":"Sources place the events at a high school in Deltona, Volusia County, Florida, and name the county Sheriff's Office.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"Three inspected news bodies: two rewrites of one Sheriff's Office statement for the event and one AP piece for the product description. The record states the police account as reported and does not treat the alert as established cause of the arrest.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-29"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"Sheriff's Office account carried by local outlets says a Gaggle alert notified the deputy. AP reporting describes monitoring software like Gaggle as AI-assisted in general. No source states how this specific alert was generated or reviewed.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["made_claim_about"]},"name":"Deltona, Florida: Gaggle school-laptop alert leads to felony arrest of a 15-year-old over a typed gun threat the student said was not serious","summary":"According to a Volusia County Sheriff's Office account carried by local outlets, a 15-year-old high school student in Deltona, Florida was arrested on 12 September 2025 after typing a written threat to bring a gun to school on a school-issued laptop. The Gaggle student-monitoring software raised an alert that notified the school resource deputy, who detained the student before the student boarded the bus home. The student was arrested on a second-degree felony charge (one outlet says the charge was still to be filed). The student reportedly admitted typing the text, said it was not meant seriously and said the motive was anger about being picked on. Outcome of the charge and the exact Gaggle role in generating this alert are not reported.","incidentDate":"2025-09-12","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2025-09-13","aiSystem":"Gaggle, a student-safety monitoring service for school-provided devices (school-monitoring software of the kind Associated Press reporting describes as using artificial intelligence)","aiProduct":"Gaggle school monitoring","aiCompany":"Gaggle","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["loss_of_liberty","legal_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The Sheriff's Office says a Gaggle alert on the student's typed threat led a deputy to detain the student before the bus ride home, and the student was arrested on a second-degree felony charge (police account; the student reportedly said the text was not meant seriously).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":1,"affectedCountStatus":"documented_minimum","affectedCountEvidence":"One student (the 15-year-old arrested). The other Volusia students arrested in the same days are not counted: the sources tie a Gaggle alert only to this student.","victimAgeRange":"minor","platformType":"other","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.wesh.com/article/volusia-county-school-threats-mental-health-awareness/66929047","primarySourceLabel":"WESH 2, Volusia County deputies arrest four children accused of making school threats","firstPublishedAt":"2026-09-29T12:42:12.865194+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-30T01:17:00.789359+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["historical-2025"]}]}