Editor’s Note: This article was written for Mosaic, an independent journalism training program for high school students who report and photograph stories under the guidance of professional journalists.
Despite initially being discouraged by South Bay schools, artificial intelligence use grew rapidly in the past school year. Now, some administrators are working to minimize cheating while promoting AI as a useful learning tool before the upcoming school year.
Some high schools are actively working on policies that would encourage responsible and honest use of AI tools like ChatGPT and Grammarly.
“We are working on strategies to find ways to include and embrace AI in the learning process and not fully vilify it,” Saratoga High School Principal Greg Louie said, adding that policies in the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District are not drastically changing and academic integrity is being taken very seriously.
Louie said when students cheat or use AI to take shortcuts, they do a disservice to their own learning rather than getting ahead.
At Del Mar High School in San Jose, Principal Diana Nguyen said that the Campbell Union High School District has created a district technology advisory committee providing a guide for generative artificial intelligence use. A document, now embedded in the student handbook, was created to help support teachers handling AI use in their classrooms.
Nguyen agrees that AI is a rapidly advancing change that schools need to catch up on for student success. “We can’t just ignore it, it’s one of those situations where we can either go with it or be left behind, and I don’t ever want any of our students to be at a disadvantage,” she said.
James Lick High School in San Jose doesn’t have specific policies in place for AI, but Principal Honey Gubuan said AI use in the classroom is up to each teacher’s preferences, with almost every teacher writing their own policy into their syllabus.
Principal Louie at Saratoga said some of his teachers have “gone back in time” to fight these technologies, reverting back to older ways of assigning work in class. Some teachers are having students write their assignments with pen and paper, removing tech from the equation.
Administrators worry that irresponsible student use of AI is hurting teacher morale and making educators’ jobs harder. The principals at Saratoga, Del Mar and James Lick all agree that some teachers get discouraged by students who use AI to take shortcuts.
“Discouragement is a great word to describe how it feels when we want to instill this love of learning in students,” Nguyen said. “We want them to be able to make the AI, not be replaced by the AI.”
But AI tools can also be helpful in the classroom when teachers use them. Gubuan said that James Lick teachers use an AI instructional planning tool called Brisk, and Del Mar teachers use programs to help detect AI use on assignments.
Gubuan compared AI technology’s impact to other technologies schools worried would disrupt student learning.
“At one point, calculators were outlawed in the classroom and now it’s such a prevalent tool to have,” she said, expecting that in the future AI tools will be an accepted presence in the classroom and educators will learn to live with them rather than shun them.
As the new school year approaches, Gubuan said it’s important to prepare students for the world they’re going into. “We need to shift, as adults, to meet their demands and their needs, so we can prepare them for what’s after high school,” Gubuan said.
Lauren Uppal is a member of the class of 2026 at Del Mar High School in San Jose.