Black Students Are Being Watched Under AI and They Know It

By Quintessa Williams, Word in Black

New technologies are quietly reshaping K-12 education — but civil rights advocates argue that they’re amplifying racial bias and turning Black kids into digital suspects.

Today, across the country, public schools are adopting artificial intelligence tools — including facial recognition cameras, vape detectors, and predictive analytics software — designed to flag students considered “high risk” — all in the name of safety. But civil rights advocates warn that these technologies are being disproportionately deployed in Black and low-income schools, without public oversight or legal accountability.

A recent report from the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) argues that AI programs and mass surveillance aren’t making schools any safer, but rather quietly expanding the school-to-prison pipeline. And according to author Clarence Okoh, the tools don’t just monitor students — they criminalize them.

“The most insidious aspect of youth surveillance in schools is how it deepens and expands the presence of law enforcement in ways that were previously impossible,” says Okoh, a senior associate at the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy and Technology. “Black students are being watched before they even act.”

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“The line between school and jail is being erased — not metaphorically, but digitally,” Okoh says.

In Pasco County, Florida, for example, an AI program secretly used school records to flag children for future criminal behavior based on grades, attendance, and discipline — leading to home visits, interrogations, and harassment. 

“It wasn’t hypothetical,” Okoh said. “Kids were being watched, tracked, and punished — and families were being pushed out.”

Okoh also added that the incident in Pasco wasn’t isolated: “These tools are being marketed across the country, and the schools most likely to say yes are the ones serving Black and low-income students.”

Read on to learn how widespread the use of AI in schools has become.

Knowing they’re under surveillance is one reason why the Black community wonders if they’re really free at last.

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