John,

Last month, alongside our partners at Encode Justice, I helped organize a meeting with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) about banning facial recognition in schools. In the meeting we shared our concerns about invasive biometric surveillance tools, and members of Encode Justice explained why keeping schools facial recognition-free matters so much to them as current high school students.

They described how school is supposed to be a safe space, but this tech is making them feel distinctly unsafe––especially since a handful of their peers have already been falsely accused and sent to the principal’s office as a result of facial recognition. Those kids are now too afraid to speak out about their experiences for fear of even more punishment.  

Add your name to a letter to the federal Department of Education demanding they protect students by keeping facial recognition out of schools.

Last year New York State’s Education Department banned the use of facial recognition in New York schools,¹ and New York State is considering legislation to codifying that ban.² That means there’s momentum and precedent for getting this tech out of schools, and our role now is to push the Department of Education (DOE) to advise schools nationwide against using facial recognition.

Sign the letter to the Department of Education

No matter the form, whether it’s creepily watching students in class,³ tracking attendance,⁴ or monitoring hallways,⁵ facial recognition is invasive, biased, and puts people’s most sensitive data at risk of being abused or stolen. We already know surveillance technology in schools creates a chilling effect on speech and political activism and increases disciplinary action for students who are already disproportionately targeted by disciplining policies – facial recognition will only exacerbate these harms.⁶

Under the White House’s Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence, the Department of Education is required to publish resources, a toolkit, policies, and guidances on the use of AI in schools by the end of 2024.⁷ This is where grassroots pressure comes in: we need thousands of people to call on the Department of Education to prioritize the issue of facial recognition in their AI resources. Add your name to the letter demanding the DOE take action to stop the spread of dangerous facial recognition technology in schools.

Thank you for everything you do,

Leila & the team at Fight

Footnotes

1. AP: https://apnews.com/article/facial-recognition-banned-new-york-schools-ddd35e004254d316beabf70453b1a6a2
2. New York Senate: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/S7944#:~:text=2023-S7944 (ACTIVE) - Summary,reason other than specified purposes
3. The College Fix: https://www.thecollegefix.com/new-facial-recognition-ai-classroom-management-tool-prompts-concerns/
4. Vox: https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/12/20/21028124/schools-facial-recognition-mass-shootings
5. Wired: https://www.wired.com/story/delicate-ethics-facial-recognition-schools/
6. ACLU: https://www.aclu.org/publications/digital-dystopia-the-danger-in-buying-what-the-edtech-surveillance-industry-is-selling
7. The White House: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/10/30/executive-order-on-the-safe-secure-and-trustworthy-development-and-use-of-artificial-intelligence/