Frederick County School Board Questions Google Gemini on Student Devices

(TNS) — Some school board members say Frederick County Public Schools should disable artificial intelligence on students' school-supplied devices until the board passes a policy on its use.Starting this school year, FCPS has allowed middle and high school students to use Google Gemini, with teacher permission. All other AI platforms are blocked on school devices.Board member Jaime Brennan said Google Gemini shouldn't be allowed on school devices or should at least "be controlled," suggesting that FCPS choose a lower level of Google subscription that doesn't automatically include Google Gemini.

Brennan said it's "unbelievably frustrating" to have FCPS roll out AI implementation without any warning to parents, when across the country, AI has been used to generate inappropriate images of students and for bullying or has "given bad advice from a mental health standpoint."After the generative AI platform was enabled for FCPS middle and high school students last month, some current and former educators shared concerns during a Sept. 9 board meeting on the impact it will have on students and teachers' inability to turn the system off.Scott Murphy, the district's director of curriculum and instruction, said piloting the use of Google Gemini was an "initial step" following the release of the state department of education's AI guidance.

The district's initial guidelines for AI use coincide with the school board working on creating its own official AI policy, exploring options such as banning AI for grading and regulating AI use based on grade level.The technology can be used in formats such as generative, predictive and agentic. AI is often used in a generative format, in which a user prompts the system to compose original content such as images, text or video.Google Gemini is a generative AI chatbot that can generate text, code, images, audio and video. It can answer questions and complete tasks.School board member Colt Black said that if FCPS cannot disable Google Gemini on student devices, it needs to "get away from the Chromebooks altogether.""It's kind of amazing to sit here and think of the audacity of the adults in the room that actually thought that students would use Google Gemini for anything beneficial other than cheating," Black said.Black called it a "common-sense issue" that education professionals should not give students more ways to cheat. He said he's always been a fan of "old-fashioned pen and paper" and using computers as a tool rather than an everyday essential.TOOL MEETS STANDARDSOn Tuesday, Murphy did not directly respond to a request for comment confirming if teachers can turn off Google Gemini for students or if students can opt out of using Google Gemini.However, he said "some of the specific questions about Gemini guidelines remain under review and will be reconsidered in alignment with upcoming Board policy and FCPS regulation."Murphy said the school district chose Google Gemini to pilot because it's the only tool FCPS evaluated and found to meet the state's high standards for safety and privacy.School board President Dean Rose said in an interview on Wednesday that Google Gemini should be turned off on school devices."I'd rather err on the side of caution than starting by fully opening it up," he said.However, on Thursday, Rose amended his comments to say he'd not make a "snap judgment" about banning AI without hearing more from the community and the staff, through discussion.Rose said he changed course after getting information from the FCPS staff about guardrails in place.For example, because Google Gemini is confined to FCPS Google accounts and monitored within the Google Suite, Rose said, the school system has access to all chatbot prompts, so parents or FCPS can review what a student entered into the system if they have a concern.However, he said those guardrails will be a continued point of discussion since reviewing prompts may not be helpful afterward.School board member Karen Yoho said FCPS should disable Google Gemini on student devices and the benefits of AI don't outweigh the risks now.The fact that Google Gemini was enabled on student devices was "news to her" when she heard educators share concerns during the last school board meeting, she said."We don't want our kids being the guinea pigs," she said.After seeing comments in the news from AI executives such as Anthropic's Dario Amodei and OpenAI's Sam Altman, calling for stronger guardrails, Yoho said she believes the new board policy needs "as many guardrails as we can."School board member Janie Inglis Monier said that after the Sept. 9 meeting, she emailed FCPS requesting that its regulation address the school system's ability to disable or disconnect AI tools on school devices when appropriate."My goal is that Gemini is not an integrated tool when a student uses their Chromebook," she said.After the school board establishes its policy, the superintendent establishes a regulation, which provides more detailed steps and rules needed to enforce board policy.Sarah Sirgo, FCPS' chief of staff, confirmed Wednesday that Superintendent Cheryl Dyson received Monier's feedback and it would be shared with the staff.Sirgo said suggestions do not constitute a formal request for a change in practice and no decision has been made regarding the proposed language.Monier said that since she joined the board in 2024, she has monitored new developments in AI with an emphasis on ethical considerations and health impacts on learning.Justin Heid, president of the Frederick County Education Association, said he hasn't heard from union members about their thoughts on Google Gemini integration and the school board's policy, but he wants to make sure educators are at the table when FCPS puts together its regulations for AI.During public comment on Sept. 9, Aubrey Lynch, a social studies teacher at Urbana High School, said she was concerned about how Google Gemini has been integrated into students' Google Docs and Google Slides programs and that teachers "can't turn it off.""At every single click, students are prompted to use AI, and as a colleague of mine said, it's not a tool if we can't control it," Lynch said.She said independent, peer-reviewed research is needed showing AI is proven safe and effective for students before integrating it into school devices.Casey Day, a recently retired teacher in the county and current school board candidate, said she is concerned that Google Gemini integration will replace the professional judgment of teachers because teachers won't be able "to make a judgment and turn it off."Thora Mintz, the student member of the school board, shared findings from a student survey in which the majority of respondents opposed students and teachers using AI in the classroom.GOOGLE GEMINI INTEGRATIONGoogle Gemini can be used for middle and high school students only under conditions established by their teacher, "primarily for the purposes of teaching about AI literacy," Murphy told The Frederick News-Post.AI literacy is the ability for students to gain the knowledge and skills to critically understand, evaluate and use AI tools safely and ethically.Otherwise, Murphy said the schools use the "Assume No AI" system for academic tasks, meaning if a teacher doesn't explicitly say AI tools are allowed to complete an assignment, a student must assume they are forbidden.Murphy also clarified that teachers can use Google Gemini.Murphy said piloting Google Gemini including its access, use and relevant guidelines will be revisited and adjusted pending the school board's policy adoption.He said, however, that all other generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, are blocked.Google Gemini is only accessible through FCPS Google Accounts that are secured and monitored within the FCPS Google Suite and digital ecosystem, Murphy said.This means Google Gemini can be accessed through Google Suite applications such as Gmail, Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drive.While state guidance does not specifically endorse any AI vendors or products, it gives local school systems the autonomy to establish AI tool selection and implementation.At the same time, the guidance requires school districts to vet AI tools for data compliance and cybersecurity and to make sure they comply with state and federal laws before using them.Once a specific AI tool is adopted, school districts must monitor it for performance, bias and unintended impacts and review vendor updates, according to the guidance.AI POLICY AND STATE GUIDELINESThe school board has until Oct. 22 to implement an AI policy to comply with a new state law.This year, the Maryland General Assembly passed the Maryland Artificial Intelligence Ready Schools Act, which mandates that the Maryland State Department of Education provide guidelines for AI usage in kindergarten through 12th grade schools and that local school systems must then develop their own guidance.Murphy said the district is building its current AI implementation off the Maryland State Department of Education's AI guidelines, which were released on June 25, and the district's own initial AI guidance developed by an FCPS work group in the 2024-2025 school year.While there was no official board policy, FCPS launched a website during the 2025-2026 school year that featured student use guides based on secondary, intermediate and primary school levels.The website provides resources for families on "Parenting in the Age of AI" and tips for parents to talk to their children about AI.OTHER AI IMPLEMENTATIONFor this school year, the district has introduced a draft "AI Scales," a sample instructional tool designed to help students understand how to appropriately and responsibly use AI and set clear expectations for transparency and citation if AI is used for an assignment, Murphy said.For the beginning of the school year, AI Scales is focused mainly on high school students and is used at the teacher's discretion as it is provided as a resource, he said."FCPS is developing resources to help students build AI literacy that addresses risks, establishes safeguards, and keeps critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills at the center," Murphy wrote in a statement to the News-Post. "We are also creating resources to help teachers talk about expectations for responsible, appropriate, and prohibited AI use with their students."© 2026 The Frederick News-Post (Frederick, Md.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.