According to a 2024 Common Sense Media article, 40% of teenagers use generative AI to help with school assignments, and 46% of them report doing so without the teacher’s permission. Dominion has set forth a very clear policy for students using AI for assignments.
AI is an increasingly popular tool to use, but Dominion High School’s Academic Integrity Plan states that the expectation is that, “unless otherwise stated by the instructor, use of AI is not permitted… [and] any unauthorized use of AI on any school related assignment is a violation of the honor code.”
If a student is caught using AI, they are required to re-do the assignment and obtain the lowest passing grade. After multiple offenses, the consequences can increase to receiving a zero for the assignment, with the opportunity to retake or complete an alternative assignment for a grade below passing, and forfeit the opportunity to take an AP exam if the event takes place in an AP class.
Despite being in violation of the honor code, it is not uncommon for teachers to catch students using AI. English Teacher Amy Anderson said, “I see it all the time. I’ve seen it through tiny assignments and larger assignments, so I tend to do more things in the classroom and on paper than on the computer, just because I think that students have so many things that they’re juggling, and they have a lot of anxiety about being perfect, which makes AI so tempting- and that’s devastating on so many levels.”
Other teachers have had similar thoughts to Anderson as AI has become a threat to students’ growth and retention of knowledge. History Teacher Amber Tolbert said, “If you use AI, and you sit down and take an AP test, you’re not going to have the resources to pull from in your brain, because it actually takes work for you to remember something,” Tolbert said.
In school, students are constantly striving for success. “There’s this stigma today, and I see it in classrooms all the time of students reaching perfection, needing perfection, not wanting to make mistakes, and what they don’t realize is that using AI is one of the biggest mistakes they could make. I would take a student any day who puts the effort in, but doesn’t quite hit the mark- because they’re willing to learn and change and grow, then a student who will just go to AI instantly because they have no thoughts of their own.”
Although using AI in English and History class is rarely permitted, it is more commonly used in math classes. Math Teacher Sean O’Neil said that there are AI tools available on websites students can use including Mathspace. “It’s lower scale [than non LCPS approved AI], specifically built to only help rather than answer questions,” O’Neil said.
The negative impacts of using AI in class are that critical thinking skills don’t develop. “In writing, I love to see students’ perspectives and voices. When they start using AI, they start losing their own voice, and they don’t develop their own thoughts, and that makes me sad to see because I think our students can change the world in so many ways. But if they don’t develop thinking on their own, it’s just parroting other generations,” Anderson said.
Although there are numerous negative aspects to using AI, there are benefits to it. Assistant Principal Jason Allison said, “I think that AI is a good tool for students to use. However, we still want students to use authentic sources and cited sources and the appropriate research materials. AI is just that. It pulls from whatever source or person that is managing that platform. So really, it would be good as a tool. I wouldn’t rely on that just because it could be not completely factual. That’s why it’s always good to cite your sources and use resources that are valid.”
