A federal judge in Massachusetts denied a couple's attempts to expunge their son's student disciplinary record and raise his grade after he used generative artificial intelligence to cheat on a class project.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued an opinion on Nov. 20 siding with Hingham High School officials in a case brought by two parents, Dale and Jennifer Harris, who requested their son's punishment be reversed due to the school's improper and "unfair" standards regarding the use of AI in the classroom. While students were allowed to use AI to brainstorm topics and identify sources, explicitly copying AI-generated text and passing it off as their work was a clear violation of the academic code, according to the high school defendants. The case is captioned Harris v. Adams.