Frederick County Schools Under Fire for Secretly Deploying Google Gemini

Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS) in Maryland has been testing Google Gemini on student devices without informing parents, sparking concerns among school board members. The AI chatbot is currently available for middle and high school students with teacher permission.

School board member Jaime Brennan called it 'unbelievably frustrating' that FCPS rolled out the AI implementation without warning parents about its potential risks. He suggested disabling Google Gemini on school devices or choosing a lower level of Google subscription that doesn't automatically include Google Gemini.

Some educators expressed concerns during a Sept. 9 board meeting, citing instances where AI has been used to generate inappropriate images of students and for bullying. Others pointed out the potential risks of giving bad advice from a mental health standpoint.

School board member Karen Yoho stated that FCPS should disable Google Gemini on student devices and the benefits of AI don't outweigh the risks now, calling it 'unacceptable' to use students as guinea pigs.