The Lawrence school district has stopped use of an AI monitoring software that sparked a federal civil rights lawsuit by current and former students, according to court documents.
The AI tool, called Gaggle, sifts through anything connected to the district’s Google Workspace — which includes Gmail, Drive and other products — and flags content it deems a safety risk, such as allusions to self-harm, depression, drug use and violence.
In August, nine current and former students filed a lawsuit against Lawrence Public Schools, alleging the district’s use of Gaggle violated student privacy.
The announcement the district had ceased use of Gaggle came as part of a motion attorneys for the district filed Monday seeking to partially dismiss the lawsuit.
This publication reached out about the status of Gaggle in July, before the case was filed, after the district did not renew its contract with Gaggle as part of its annual organizational board meeting.
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In an email response, Superintendent Jeanice Swift said the contract had not expired, and the district would continue with the tool. She said the Gaggle contract would be extended on schedule. The district purchased Gaggle for $162,000 over three years; 2025-26 was the final year of that three-year contract.
That appears to no longer be the case, according to the latest court documents. A declaration attached to Monday’s motion and signed by Swift states that the district has ceased use of the tool, and the district’s contract with Gaggle had expired in the summer.
Motion seeks dismissal of students’ claims
The students’ lawsuit alleges Gaggle violates students’ Fourth Amendment rights protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures and First Amendment rights protecting free expression and a free press.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are current and former students from Lawrence and Free State high schools. The group includes former student journalists at LHS who reported extensively on Gaggle, alongside artists and photographers whose work was flagged and removed by the software.
The defendants are the Lawrence school board, Lawrence Public Schools and Greg Farley, an assistant principal at LHS.
The motion filed Monday by attorneys for the defendants makes a series of arguments seeking dismissal of many claims in the lawsuit.
It asks the court to dismiss all claims by several plaintiffs who have already graduated, arguing their requests for relief are moot since they are no longer affected by district policy.
The motion argues any claims against the school board should be dismissed because the district is already named as a defendant. The two entities are legally the same for purposes of the lawsuit, it says.
It also argues the plaintiffs cannot seek punitive damages against the district or school board because municipalities are immune under federal code.
Attorneys for the district argue that Farley should be shielded from the lawsuit under qualified immunity, a legal doctrine protecting public employees from liability unless they violate clearly established constitutional rights.
The attorneys also wrote that Farley did not infringe on students’ First or Fourth Amendment protections when he questioned them about images flagged by Gaggle. The district contends Farley’s questioning was reasonable and justified, given the circumstances, and did not amount to an unlawful search or seizure.
The filing also emphasizes that Farley never viewed or confiscated the images, coerced the students or disciplined them, arguing that these facts undercut any claim of a constitutional violation.
Students have pushed back on Gaggle for years
Lawrence students have pushed back against Gaggle since the district first started using it two years ago.
During the 2023-24 school year, a handful of Lawrence High School journalism students convinced the district to remove their files from Gaggle’s reach.
The students argued their files were protected by the Kansas Student Publications Act, legislation that protects student journalists, ensuring editorial independence and shielding them from censorship by school authorities.
They argued the Kansas Reporter’s Shield Law, which protects journalists’ confidential notes and sources, prohibited the district from deploying Gaggle and possibly looking through their reporting material. Their arguments have been regularly supported by the Student Press Law Center.
Still, then-LHS journalism teacher Barb Tholen alerted the district of further concerns with Gaggle. Despite the objections, the school board voted 6-1 to renew Gaggle’s contract at its annual organizational meeting in 2024.
The students’ lawsuit, filed nearly three months ago, claims the district’s use of Gaggle constituted a “sweeping, suspicionless monitoring program” and violated student rights by flagging and seizing student artwork. It says Gaggle undermines the mental health goals it attempts to address by intercepting appeals for help students may send to teachers or other trusted adults.
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Cuyler Dunn (he/him), a contributor to The Lawrence Times since April 2022, is a student at the University of Kansas School of Journalism. He is a graduate of Lawrence High School where he was the editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper, The Budget, and was named the 2022 Kansas High School Journalist of the Year. Read his complete bio here. Read more of his work for the Times here.
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