(The image above was made using AI)
Why do I cheat? In a world where my future is measured in grades, why wouldn’t I? If everyone around me is using AI and I refuse, what exactly am I being rewarded for: virtue or output? Why should I spend hours struggling through assignments when my classmates can generate the same answers in seconds? Why should I care more about academic honesty than the institutions enforcing it? Why? When even teachers begin to use AI to write lesson plans, quizzes, and feedback. Success increasingly belongs to those willing to exploit the system. Why should I follow my moral compass when ignoring it could land me on the honor roll?
Why should I be forced to compete against an applicant pool of AI users? 84% of high school students reported using generative AI tools for schoolwork as of May 2025, up from 79% just a few months earlier in January 2025, according to College Board research. What am I being rewarded for if I can get better grades in less time by using AI? And additionally, I’m not breaking any school or district rules by using AI. The District’s student handbook leaves AI regulation to the teacher’s discretion, and the EHS supplementary handbook doesn’t mention AI a single time across its 18 pages.
I lose, or I lose. If I use AI, my grades improve slightly, my workload decreases, I can take an additional class, and the district does not penalize me for it… But the quality of my education declines. Or, if I commit to an AI-free education, I take a traditional seven-class workload and earn my grades honestly, only to compete in the college applicant pool against students taking eight classes while using AI to supplement their work. I am in a difficult position, and my instructors are in an even worse one. This is clearly the moment for our institutions to step in.
Nonetheless, our district has described its policy towards AI as “deliberate slowness.” When are my peers going to realize how unacceptable inaction is? How long do we plan to wait? When is my community going to realize the detrimental effects AI is having on our education system? When is our administration going to act? Once it’s too late? Once my generation has graduated and my education has already been damaged? When I already had to apply to colleges in an applicant pool riddled with rampant AI usage? When are my peers going to see the travesty? How much longer will I have to choose between losing and losing?
Multiple potential policies are viable; the issue is the lack of any policy. Students are stressed out, overworked, and are now being disadvantaged by a lethargic admin. When will you, my peers, my teachers, and my community demand policy?
