In the recent years at Haddonfield Memorial High School, the recurring problem of AI usage has appeared countless times in the student body, mostly through AI plagiarism or academic dishonesty. However, AI has benefited many students through studying and learning, enhancing their education. This situation has left the school with a disorganized plan on how AI can and cannot be used, leading to confusion on how to properly use AI in school.

In early February, the Haddonfield Board of Education released a public survey to both students and parents addressing AI use. This survey contained many questions relating to personal AI usage, the most important ones including:

•  “Which AI tools do you use most often?”
• “What is your current use of AI for your work in HSD?”

The school, however, wishes to allow the use of AI in an ethical way. With some benefits to AI in the educational field, they wish to optimize those benefits to work with the students’ academic journey. The survey sent out asks the respondents of their opinions on AI usage in school to get a better understanding of how students/parents wish for AI to be used in school, with questions asking:

• “Do you agree that AI tools should be integrated into the district’s educational and co-curricular programs?”
• “Should the district restrict students to a specific “Approved List” of AI platforms (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini, Canva Magic Write), or allow open access to any tool?”

Though the school wishes to use AI to enhance the student’s educational experience, they are aware of the problems including AI. These problems are majorly plagiarism and academic dishonesty, which can negatively impact the student’s education and, when caught, their college resumes. To appropriately address and punish students who use AI to cheat in their classes, they asked the respondents of the survey their concerns of AI usage, and their opinion on the school’s methods of handling unethical AI usage. Some questions in the survey included:

• “What are your primary concerns regarding AI in schools?”
• “How should the district handle suspected plagiarism or academic dishonesty involving AI?”
• “Do you feel the current Code of Conduct is sufficient to handle AI Infractions?”

This survey was sent out to collect data on how the student body and parents of HMHS students perceive AI, and which ways AI can be incorporated into the school, along with how unethical AI usage can be punished.

The Board of Education wishes to form an AI Plan to directly state the ways in which AI can be used in education ethically. Dr. Priolo, the Assistant Superintendent of Schools, explained how his team will approach the data in this survey. His team plans to analyze the data given to them within the survey, then individually meet with groups to help better understand the data given to his team. After getting feedback and concluding what to do with the data from the survey, his team plans on creating a formal policy on how AI can be used in the school safely.

The Board of Education wishes for AI to enhance the student experience in HMHS, while also listening to how the students themselves wish to use AI. They are aware of the strengths AI provides, which is why they believe it is important for them to find a way to incorporate it into the student’s education. AI can be a dangerous tool, however, as it can lead to severe cases of plagiarism and dishonesty, creating the risk of freely allowing AI in school. In the upcoming months, the Board of Education will form a plan in which AI can be ethically placed into education, while also restricting AI use for unethical behaviors.

The data collected has not been fully analyzed at the time of this article’s publication, so information regarding the respondents’ opinions has not been collected.