Wake County student urges clearer AI policy after cheating accusation

A Green Hope High School freshman says she was wrongly accused of using artificial intelligence on an English assignment, and her challenge is now exposing how little consistency Wake County schools have as they try to police AI in the classroom.

Eleanor Canina, who attends the Cary school, said she did not cheat but was still run through three AI detection tools. Those tools returned sharply different results, with probabilities of 62%, 75% and 87% that the work had been generated by AI or substantially assisted by it. By Monday afternoon, her Change.org petition calling for clearer district rules had gathered 87 signatures, turning one student’s grade dispute into a broader test of how Wake County treats accusations tied to generative AI.

The dispute has also raised questions about fairness and evidence. Canina said she was asked to redo work she says she completed honestly. In an email tied to the assignment, one note said, “evidence of AI, Please redo.” The case became more complicated because her original English teacher had left the position, and other teachers were grading work in the class. That left a student at Green Hope in a system where the standard for proving AI misuse appears uneven from one classroom to another.

Wake County leaders have been talking about that problem for more than a year. In May 2025, district officials were already weighing whether AI use should be limited to students 13 and older and were considering Google Gemini because of concerns about how some tools handled user data. By June 2025, board members were publicly debating the district’s first generative AI policy, and staff said a final version would likely take months to complete and would be meant to give students, parents and employees a consistent set of guidelines.

The draft language now circulating online says the school system encourages responsible generative AI use while protecting privacy, integrity and inclusion. It also says the district wants to provide guidance on appropriate and inappropriate uses, tell families which tools are approved, and train employees, students and families in safe and ethical use. Board member Chris Heagarty said the district needs a policy, at least in pieces, if a full one takes too long.

Canina’s case is landing at the center of that unfinished rollout. For Wake County families, the practical issue is not whether AI belongs in schools, but whether students can be judged by rules that are clear, consistent and strong enough to survive a challenge before the next school year begins.