Carly Waldman is a junior at Staples High School. She is a varsity swimmer, and has lived in Westport since she was 8 years old. She writes:
I’ve always been a good student and kid. I’ve never gone to the principal’s office; I don’t sit in the bathroom and vape; I work hard and complete my assignments on time.
As much as I sometimes want to skip my AP social studies class, I show up every day with only minor grumblings. I take pride in my work, and was incredibly happy with the essay I wrote on hate speech I had just submitted for my class. That’s why it was shocking to me when, the week of midterms, my favorite teacher called me outside the room and accused me of cheating.
It had taken me 2 weeks of research, drafting, and revising to write this piece. When I finally turned it in, I felt quite accomplished. It was one of those moments when you know you did well, where you can almost picture the teacher nodding in approval as they read it. But that moment of confidence was short-lived.
Carly Waldman
My teacher stood before the class a week later, explaining that she had been reading essays that didn’t sound like students’ typical writing. Too many felt eerily polished, structured in a way that suggested a human didn’t write them. She said she was concerned — so concerned, in fact, that she had decided to have us all submit our essays to Turnitin.com, the AI detection website our school uses – although it shouldn’t.
Turnitin.com has historically been used as an anti-plagiarism tool. The AI-detection piece has just started to be incorporated over the past few years in schools; it is imperfect and illegitimate. The site itself warns against using it to accuse students of AI-generating written work due to its fallibility. Yet, that was the sole basis of the accusation against me.
I didn’t hesitate submitting my essay to Turnitin when requested to do so, because I knew I had written the piece myself. A full month passed and I assumed everything had blown over — until 2 days before midterms when my teacher suddenly pulled me aside.
She looked upset as she told me my essay had been flagged due to Turnitin’s AI detection, that there was nothing I could say or do, and that she had already reported my name to the school as per mandated school policy.
I blinked, trying to process what she had just said. I wanted to show her my notes, drafts, and the hours of effort that had gone into my writing. But before I could say anything else, she shook her head.
I was told I would have to come in the following Monday – after 4 hours of midterm exams, and do an alternative, supervised written assignment – yet, in doing so I could only get my grade up to a 50%. If I didn’t do this, I would get a 0 on the essay I had worked on so hard.
She told me the only way I could fight this was to go through the appeals process. My stomach dropped. The appeal process. It sounded like a bureaucratic nightmare where I’d have to sit in front of a panel of teachers, defending my own work — a student on trial. The idea was infuriating. I wasn’t even allowed to explain myself before I was labeled guilty.
I left the class feeling like the ground had been pulled from under me. The stress of midterms was already suffocating, but now I had this added weight on my shoulders.
I called my parents for support, unclear about what to do and wanting to talk to them before they got notice from the school. My guidance counselor, someone I trusted, could only offer sympathy and a breakdown of the appeal process.
But what I needed wasn’t sympathy — I needed justice. I needed someone to believe me.
The next day and a half was stressful and anxiety-inducing. Could this affect my entrance to college? Would one of my favorite classes and teachers forever think I was a cheater?
After the teacher called my parents, she agreed that she needed to bring my essay to the department head and take a second look, a human look, at the piece I wrote.
My name was quickly cleared when they determined I wrote it; even a personal story from 10th grade was flagged as “likely AI-generated.”
But that didn’t erase the unnecessary stress that the situation created. The teacher suggested my parents write to administration. The head of the department and the principal agreed to a meeting with my parents and me. However, I felt like I wanted to handle this by myself so I went to the conference on my own. (That was a little nerve-wracking!)
The worst part of all of this was the fact that no one could really explain how this had happened. When I met with the principal and the head of the department, they were polite but vague. They acknowledged the mistake but didn’t offer any real solutions.
If AI detection software is this flawed, why are we putting so much faith in it? Why are students being presumed guilty based on an algorithm’s judgment?
Situations like mine shouldn’t happen again. Schools need to approach these accusations with more care. Instead of immediately flagging students as cheaters, teachers should talk with the student, ask about their writing process, and consider the evidence beyond AI-detection software. Technology is not perfect, nor is the system that blindly trusts it.
I worked hard on my essay. I knew my own words. And yet, for a time, I was treated as if my voice didn’t belong to me.
That’s not how justice should work. That’s not how education should work. If schools want to encourage integrity and prioritize mental health, they should rethink their policies on Gen-AI accusations, because I doubt I’m the first or last person who has gone or will go through this awful process.
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The contest is open to students attending both public and private high school in Westport. Those who live in Westport and attend public or private high school elsewhere — or are home-schooled here — can also participate.
The Westport Library co-sponsors the event. They’ll host the winners at a special ceremony on April 28.
The stories circulating around town involve several sports, and boys and girls teams. Details differ, but one element is the same: parental involvement in personnel issues.
