By Alexis Breivogel, Staff Writer
10/15/26
ROCKLAND- At Rockland High School Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly more common in all subjects. While many students and teachers support the benifits of this technology, others are concerned about the possible dangers of using it in schools.
AI gives students help in studying or doing homework, but also can lead to cheating.
AI is getting harder to control and differentiate from actual writing and original thought, which is a concern for many in today's society. This is causing a major impact on students when they use the tool to do their work for them, causing them to rely on AI and lessening their ability to comprehend information.
Freshman Molly Jackson said, “schools are supposed to be a learning opportunity for students and give them what they know instead of relying on AI which you don’t even know if it’s true or not.”
Since AI has become more used in assignments when allowed or not, students have seemed to struggle more with starting larger assignments because it is seen as too overwhelming or challenging to some students.
Ms. Amanda McDonough, an English teacher, said "I think (AI) causes students to doubt themselves. They’ve become afraid of taking those first steps because they haven’t practiced doing it.”
Some day that before AI and all of its tools, students would use critical thinking skills to try and figure out how to do a more challenging part of an assignment. Now, AI is taking away valuable learning moments for students and affecting their mental state.
Science teacher Ms. Chelsea Savage said, “I don’t think students are as effective at writing because they have a crutch for AI.”
Others say that AI has some benefits such as being used as a study tool or to keep thoughts organized. This especially is a benefit for students who have many after school activities or get stressed over things such as graphic organizers.
Caroline Corbett, a freshman at RHS said, “if you're going to use it, use it to help you.”
Corbett said she doesn’t fully support it she does know that it should only be used to help kids study and learn if the teacher isn’t available.
Ms. McDonough said, “I get why kids do it. A lot of kids are very busy. They have a lot of responsibilities, a lot of hard classes.”
Most students use AI to help with writing, but many teachers and schools believe that is cheating.
Jackson said, "writing should come from a heart of your own ideas and opinions, and AI just completely takes that away.”
Whether AI should be used in schools or not is a question many districts and members of the community are asking.
Freshman Heba Karroud, said, "AI shouldn’t be used in school because it won’t allow students to learn credibility, and it won’t even allow them to have a sense of creativity and expand themselves that way”
Even though AI can be harmful it can still have its benefits such as studying and and organizing thoughts, and making it easier get work done in a time crunch. but even with all that students still have to be careful because AI can give wrong information and because of its technology component, it could have glitches that cause problems.
Rockland High currently does not have specific language about use of AI in the student handbook, but individual teachers have policies outlined in their syllabi and class policies.