Yet, with the budget delayed by months, the state saw many of its institutions in precarious positions, while higher ed costs and big changes from the feds made headlines all year long.

Tuition trouble

Ballooning expenses for everyday families were a central focus in the world of higher education. One report found that the state faces the steepest costs for higher education in the country.

For the first time in years, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education was forced to raise its tuition rate, this time by $139 per semester. Nevertheless, the system graduated 21,000 students in the spring and introduced course-sharing across campuses to continue streamlining activity between its 10 universities. The schools still face declining enrollment.

At the same time, the state’s private and state-related institutions took heat from the federal government for their soaring costs. Penn was among Ivy League schools called by Congress to answer for alleged tuition-fixing.

A poll found that the majority of Pennsylvanians, 69%, would support a tuition grant system for students attending community colleges and PASSHE schools. Bills were introduced that would give tuition to indigenous students and out-of-state foster students, respectively, and to offer in-state tuition to long-term residents regardless of citizenship.

Higher ed fed-aches

As the federal government slashed research budgets in its efforts to root out waste and DEI, or diversity equity and inclusion, The Center Square dove deep into Pennsylvania’s higher education landscape. A series of articles examined the nature of federal funding and school spending at major research institutions like Penn State and the University of Pennsylvania.

The reports found that the state’s wealthiest schools, like Penn, receive the most funding but still struggle with the publish-or-perish grant cycle. Meanwhile, state-funded schools are a world away from their state-related counterparts.

As dust settled from pulled funding, the Trump administration extended an offer to a select group of schools: enter a compact committing to its policies and receive grant opportunities and special consideration. Penn politely declined, with liberals and conservatives alike supporting the decision.

In other areas, Pennsylvania schools were more willing to work with federal priorities. Penn acquiesced to demands from the Department of Education regarding perceived Title IX violations, and schools worked to bolster their defenses against antisemitism with encouragement from U.S. Sens. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., and John Fetterman, D-Pa.

Basic education funds

The state’s K-12 schools ultimately received an increase in basic education funding, but in the months before the budget passed, many sounded the alarm that they were running out of money — and time. For immediate relief, the Treasury offered low-interest loans.

A major pain point for the state’s nearly 3,000 schools are their aging facilities. Legislators continue to seek out ways to approach the daunting task of maintenance and repairs.

To pay for it, and to continue closing the funding adequacy gap, some lawmakers have proposed ending the current system of local property tax-based funding for the system. They aim to replace it with an education trust fund.

It’s likely still too soon to tell if the increases to basic education made in the last budget season are having their desired effect. This year’s state standardized assessment scores showed decline in several areas with increases in a few, including attendance.

Funding for certain schools, however, was reevaluated in the new budget and promises to deliver money back into the pockets of districts who have been sending tuition out to cyber charters. The reform follows a damning report from the Pennsylvania Auditor General Tim DeFoor. Meanwhile, an AI charter proposal was roundly dismissed by the state.

Policy points

At the federal level, Secretary of Education and former professional wrestling executive Linda McMahon worked to “put herself out of a job.” The Democratic co-chair of the state senate’s education committee, Sen. Lindsey Williams, D-Pittsburgh, voiced strong opposition, even proposing a state-level agency to replace the cuts.

State policies also came under the microscope, with bipartisan talk around the topic of school cell phone bans. Recognizing that even with bans in place, students are subject to misinformation, disinformation, and AI-generated content, some lawmakers discussed media bias and information literacy.

Safety continued to be a major topic. The governor signed into law new policy that requires schools to report to all parents any infringement of weapons policies, even those that are unintended. The Safe2Say program continued to improve, giving students an anonymous venue to voice concerns about issues like suicide or school violence. Still, one analysis from the conservative policy organization, the Commonwealth Foundation, found that 40% of the state’s schools were “persistently dangerous.”

The perennial fight for school choice, which is popular amongst voters, continued, once again left off the table by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s budget proposal. Scholarship programs for students in low-performing schools were floated in a bipartisan senate bill. The state’s existing tax credit program turned students away from lifeline scholarships.

Elementary

“The Scarecrow,” by Beth Ferry

This meditative story of friendship, with a target audience of K-5, provides a beautiful read-aloud to be shared across generations. The illustrations tell a story that transcends seasons and can be enjoyed any time of the year. It is a perfect starting point for young readers: If they enjoy this, they can explore the author’s wider body of work, which includes engaging animal friends like Stick and Stone and Fox and Rabbit.

— Bethlehem Area library team

“The Invention of Hugo Cabret,” written and illustrated by Brian Selznick

This book received the Caldecott Award for outstanding illustrations. There are 284 pages of lined pencil illustrations to help to tell the story and require students to use visual inferencing skills. The story is exciting and takes the reader back in time to the turn of the 20th century to Paris, where the boy, Hugo, is trying to find the pieces to his father’s automaton to reveal a hidden message. The reader’s heart will pound as they run, hide and try to navigate through hidden passageways along with Hugo in the Paris train station! Students will want to finish the book to learn the secret message! Inspired by the French pioneer filmmaker, George Melies, this 526-page book is a fast read among students grades 3-5!! This book will bolster the students’ confidence in completing larger books.

— Bethlehem Area library team

“The Book With No Pictures,” by B. J. Novak

This book engages the reader through words only. It’s really a picture book with no pictures! The reader has to say funny words and read funny passages. The text is varied in size and color and creates visual appeal and interest. This book makes the reader laugh and feel really happy after completing it. It demonstrates the sheer joy and reward of reading, inspiring kids to want to read even more! Recommended for grades K-5. (Really all ages.) I can’t keep this book on my shelves!!

— Bethlehem Area library team

“A Snow Day for Amos McGee,” by Philip C. Stead, illustrated by Erin E. Stead

Our elementary librarians recommend this charming winter tale from the award-winning Amos McGee series. (Another book in the set, “A Sick Day for Amos McGee,” won the Caldecott Medal.) This story follows a kindhearted zookeeper who gets all the zoo animals excited for the first snowfall of winter. Erin E. Stead’s gentle, beautiful illustrations make this a cozy, joyful read for young students.

— East Penn library team

Middle school

“Restart,” by Gordon Korman

If you’re looking for a book that grabs your attention from the very first page, “Restart” is a perfect choice. The story follows Chase Ambrose, a middle school student who loses his memory after a fall and must piece together who he used to be — and who he wants to become. As Chase discovers his past, he’s forced to confront mistakes, repair relationships and redefine himself. I recommend “Restart” because it sparks important conversations about kindness, second chances and the power of choosing to be better today than you were yesterday. It’s fast-paced, relatable, and filled with lots of humor and heart!

— Kelly Flynn, library media specialist at Orefield Middle School

“Front Desk,” by Kelly Yang

This is a modern classic, with a target audience of sixth through eighth grade, tackles big issues with a lot of heart. It follows Mia Tang, a 10-year-old immigrant girl who manages the front desk of a motel while her parents clean the rooms. Mia navigates poverty, prejudice and the challenge of finding her voice in a new language. It is an empowering story about resilience and the power of writing to change the world — themes that resonate deeply with middle schoolers looking for a hero to root for.

— Bethlehem Area library team

“Candace, The Universe, and Everything,” by Sherri L. Smith

I always love a good time travel book, and this one is quite unique! It involves an eighth grade girl finding out that her locker is a sort of portal to the past. She connects with two other women who once shared the same locker, and the three of them begin a quest to discover the origin of the portal.

— East Penn library team

High school

“Secrets in the Snow,” by Michaela MacColl

My top pick is “Secrets in the Snow” by Michaela MacColl because it takes the classic literature of Jane Austen and puts a modern twist on it. The author intertwines facts of Jane Austen’s real life with a suspenseful fictional tale.

— Carol Dickerson, library media specialist, Parkland High School

“Sisters in the Wind,” by Angeline Boulley

Lucy, a Native teen who has been in the foster care system since her father’s death, receives a mysterious note after a near-fatal explosion at work: “Lucy, come home where you are loved.” What follows is an unforgettable journey as Lucy works to uncover who is targeting her, where she truly comes from, and what she wants for her future. Boulley’s third mystery about Indigenous youth stepping into their power is as thrilling and unputdownable as her first two novels.

— East Penn library team

“Angelica and the Bear Prince,” by Trung Le Nguyen

A beautiful graphic novel that examines issues of anxiety and grief while celebrating the importance of community and the arts to transform lives. Angelica has coped with her grief over losing her grandmother by overscheduling herself and not allowing herself time to process her feelings. With the help of community theater (and a mysterious bear mascot!), she reconnects with her inner child and is able to find hope and feel secure once again.

— East Penn library team

“Twenty-four Seconds from Now,” by Jason Reynolds

Everything Reynolds writes is worth reading, and in this slice-of-life romance told by alternating narrators Aria and Neon, who are facing a milestone in their relationship, family and friends also takes center stage as both teens grow into adulthood surrounded by those who know them best. Funny, sweet and relatable.

— East Penn library team

Chartered in 1826 and named for the Marquis de Lafayette, the Easton liberal arts college is selling bicentennial-themed merchandise while supplies last online and in person at the Lafayette College Store at 211 McCartney St.

“It feels amazing,” store manager Pete Violante said of seeing Lafayette College reach its bicentennial, adding that he was proud to be part of the celebration.

Special from Abercrombie & Fitch are “200”-themed hoodies, T-shirts and fleece pants.

Other non-Abercrombie & Fitch apparel and accessories include pullovers, polo shirts, keychains, lapel pins and hats.

Abercrombie CEO Fran Horowitz, who graduated from Lafayette in 1985, isn’t the only alum participating in the 200th anniversary merch.

Crayola, which has its corporate headquarters in Forks Township, created commemorative crayon boxes that include the limited edition colors, said Pam Pearson, commercialization specialization solutions director and a 1994 alum. Colors are Marquis Maroon, Cur Non Royal, Golden Leopard and Day on the Quad.

“This project was a lot of fun,” Pearson said. “It’s kind of like worlds collide. My work world and my college world came together.”

Pete Ruggiero, Crayola president and CEO and a member of the college’s board of trustees, said in a written statement, “Crayola celebrates Lafayette College’s historic celebration and its substantial impact on our world. Given Crayola’s long-standing partnership with Lafayette in building the Easton community, it has been an honor for us to participate in the bicentennial by producing the [commemorative] box of crayons.”

Finally, the gardening company Burpee is offering seeds for the bi-colored Marquis Marigolds, said Jamie Mattikow, a 1986 alum and president and CEO of the Bucks County company.

“Lafayette was a great university to help you experience different possibilities,” Mattikow said. “I went in as an undeclared liberal arts major and I tried different courses, and different areas captured my interest. The economics and business and government and law were nice complimentary majors with different curriculums.”

Additional 200th anniversary plans include the unveiling of a bronze statue dedicated to Adrienne de Noailles, wife of the Marquis de Lafayette. The work, by artist Audrey Flack and completed by Brian Booth Craig after Flack’s death, will be installed near Skillman Library and unveiled and dedicated in March.

Lafayette College President Nicole Hurd said the college’s celebrations are celebrating “our very democratic origin story.”

“I love the fact that we are named for a founding father that was the same age as our students when he came over to participate in the Revolution, who fought for freedom, for liberty, for democracy, but also spoke out against slavery,” she said. “He was somebody who was very committed to these ideas that are the American experiment.”

Four LCTI students created and executed the design concept as a community service project.

“I want kids to be inspired by what we did,” said Aubrie Briody, one of the LCTI student painters.

After Just Born approved the students’ sketch, they projected the design onto the crate to produce a New Year’s Eve cityspace that features a disco ball, fireworks and human-sized Peeps.

The new design will allow the Peeps chick to be on display at the family-friendly holiday event, rather than hidden in a tractor-trailer, Just Born logistics manager James Rutt said.

The project as a whole offered an opportunity to get students who specialize in design, painting, warehouse and distribution involved.

“It touched a whole bunch of different occupations in the school,” Rutt said.

Kylie Ackerman, Solimar Chung and Joney Jones worked alongside Briody to paint the crate under the guidance of instructor Keith Lyons.

“I’ve always loved to draw, since I was little,” Chung said, adding that the Peeps were her favorite part to paint.

The design program at LCTI has allowed Chung to engage in tactile learning.

“I just really took a liking to it when I started doing hands-on activities,” Chung said.

Chung is working to apply her design skills toward revamping her bedroom. She hopes to pursue a career in interior design.

“Just Born as a whole really does support workforce development among students,” Corporate Affairs Specialist Courtney Angle said.

Sherwin Williams donated $450 worth of paint for the project.

The newly adorned crate is “really a piece of art,” Angle said. “We’re hoping it will last for many PeepsFests to come.”

Making Peeps last is a favorite activity of Ackerman’s, who said she likes to wait a week or two to enjoy the confection.

“I love stale Peeps,” Ackerman said. “It’s so weird, but they’re amazing.”

The three Moravian Academy students who founded Solvis have earned thousands of dollars in pitch competition awards and now aim to place test cameras at 25 construction sites by the end of next year.

“It’s about confidence, really,” Aveer Chadha said. “First, we believe in our solution.”

The product the students developed, dubbed Solvis Pure, is a camera that monitors construction sites and uses a proprietary algorithm to crunch the data, alerting companies through a mobile app if hazardous runoff is approaching or exceeding regulatory limits.

The problem of harmful construction runoff initially came up during a spontaneous walk along the Lehigh River.

Chadha and fellow co-founders Nikhil Skandan and Qayn Jaffer were working in a Lehigh University building, brainstorming startup ideas for a competition.

They needed a break and decided to go outside. As they walked along the river, they saw dirt, woodchips and what appeared to be pollutants flowing from a construction site into the river.

Curious to find out how widespread the problem might be, the students researched construction industry statistics and found that runoff causes significant environmental damage.

One statistic that stood out in their research was a widely cited 2015 study from construction blog BIMhow that found the industry contributed to 40% of drinking water pollution.

“We found that the problem was two-sided: So, not only was construction contributing to such a large portion of environmental harm, but in that increased environmental harm is also very detrimental to the companies themselves because they were being fined at the Environmental Protection Agency,” Chadha said.

Tasdemir Marble and Granite provided photos from its field testing to help the students train their algorithm. Solvis company testing shows the model is 91.2% accurate at identifying materials in construction runoff.

“They’re solving a problem that is community-based,” said Tony Mattei, the director of entrepreneurship at Penn State Brandywine.

Mattei directs the Brandywine LaunchBox, a Penn State service that provides free resources to early startups.

LaunchBox staff partnered with the Ideas X Innovation Network — also known as i2n — to launch a pitch competition called LionCage at which the Solvis founders won a $2,000 Rising Entrepreneur prize.

“They really shined in this big pitch competition,” Mattei said.

Next steps for Solvis

Connecting to customers and building partnerships will be the next key phase for the startup, Mattei said, adding that government grants could be a good way to start tapping into the network of environmental regulators that could one day provide contracts that go beyond one-off hits with construction companies.

The Lehigh Valley construction industry is tight-knit, with multiple companies often collaborating on one project, and Jaffer said Solvis aims to tap into that network.

“It’s just kind of building the confidence within the industry and reliability and kind of just the word of mouth marketing is what really carried us so far,” Jaffer said.

The LionCage win was Solvis’ second triumph of November, following the award of a $10,000 Be More Fund grant at the National Society of High School Scholars Day in Atlanta earlier in the month.

Applying their concept in a real-world setting at scale is the next challenge for the Solvis founders, i2n Director Matt Cabrey said.

“When you can repeat the success of a technology like this in a consistent way, that really elevates the organization to the next level,” Cabrey said.

So far Solvis has been relying on Skandan’s robotics and coding background to build the devices and fine tune the mobile app that produces monitoring data for participating companies.

One challenge to scaling production is the need to employ expensive cameras capable of generating the high-quality images needed to identify materials within runoff, Skandan said, adding that work continues to determine how to grow the company in a cost-effective way.

Creating a business is a new challenge for someone with a science background, but it’s taught Skandan that discoveries can have a tangible impact.

“They can be scalable to actually help people and be implemented in the real world that basically is able to create this society for the better,” Skandan said.

The University of Oklahoma has fired an instructor who was accused by a student of religious discrimination over a failing grade on a psychology paper in which she cited the Bible and argued that promoting a “belief in multiple genders” was “demonic.”

The university said in a statement posted Monday on X that its investigation found the graduate teaching assistant had been “arbitrary” in giving 20-year-old junior Samantha Fulnecky zero points on the assignment. The university declined to comment beyond its statement, which said the instructor had been removed from teaching.

Through her attorney, the instructor, Mel Curth, denied Tuesday that she had “engaged in any arbitrary behavior regarding the student’s work.” The attorney, Brittany Stewart, said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press that Curth is “considering all of her legal remedies.”

Conservative groups, commentators and others quickly made Fulnecky’s failing grade an online cause, highlighting her argument that she’d been punished for expressing conservative Christian views. Her case became a flashpoint in the ongoing debate over academic freedom on college campuses as President Donald Trump pushes to end diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and restrict how campuses discuss race, gender and sexuality.

Fulnecky appealed her grade on the assignment, which was worth 3% of the final grade in the class, and the university said the assignment would not count. It also placed Curth on leave, and Oklahoma’s conservative Republican governor, Kevin Stitt, declared the situation “deeply concerning.”

“The University of Oklahoma believes strongly in both its faculty’s rights to teach with academic freedom and integrity and its students’ right to receive an education that is free from a lecturer’s impermissible evaluative standards,” the university’s statement said. “We are committed to teaching students how to think, not what to think.”

A law approved this year by Oklahoma’s Republican-dominated Legislature and signed by Stitt prohibits state universities from using public funds to finance DEI programs or positions or mandating DEI training. However, the law says it does not apply to scholarly research or “the academic freedom of any individual faculty member.”

Home telephone listings for Fulnecky in the Springfield, Missouri, area had been disconnected, and her mother — an attorney, podcaster and radio host — did not immediately respond Tuesday to a Facebook message seeking comment about the university’s action.

Fulnecky’s failing grade came in an assignment for a psychology class on lifespan development. Curth directed students to write a 650-word response to an academic study that examined whether conformity with gender norms was associated with popularity or bullying among middle school students.

Fulnecky wrote that she was frustrated by the premise of the assignment because she does not believe that there are more than two genders based on her understanding of the Bible, according to a copy of her essay provided to The Oklahoman.

“Society pushing the lie that there are multiple genders and everyone should be whatever they want to be is demonic and severely harms American youth,” she wrote, adding that it would lead society “farther from God’s original plan for humans.”

In feedback obtained by the newspaper, Curth said the paper did “not answer the questions for the assignment,” contradicted itself, relied on “personal ideology” over evidence and “is at times offensive.”

“Please note that I am not deducting points because you have certain beliefs,” Curth wrote.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said on Tuesday that it will begin garnishing the wages of student loan borrowers who are in default early next year.

The department said it will send notices to approximately 1,000 borrowers the week of January 7, with more notices to come at an increasing scale each month.

Millions of borrowers are considered in default, meaning they are 270 days past due on their payments. The department must give borrowers 30 days notice before their wages can be garnished.

The department said it will begin collection activities, “only after student and parent borrowers have been provided sufficient notice and opportunity to repay their loans.”

In May, the Trump administration ended the pandemic-era pause on student loan payments, beginning to collect on defaulted debt through withholding tax refunds and other federal payments to borrowers.

The move ended a period of leniency for student loan borrowers. Payments restarted in October of 2023, but the Biden administration extended a grace period of one year. Since March 2020, no federal student loans had been referred for collection, including those in default, until the Trump administration’s changes earlier this year.

The Biden administration tried multiple times to give broad forgiveness to student loans, but those efforts were eventually stopped by courts.

Persis Yu, deputy executive director for the Student Borrower Protection Center, criticized the decision to begin garnishing wages, and said the department had failed to sufficiently help borrowers find affordable payment options.

“At a time when families across the country are struggling with stagnant wages and an affordability crisis, this administration’s decision to garnish wages from defaulted student loan borrowers is cruel, unnecessary, and irresponsible,” Yu said in a statement. “As millions of borrowers sit on the precipice of default, this Administration is using its self-inflicted limited resources to seize borrowers’ wages instead of defending borrowers’ right to affordable payments.”

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Joseph Barlow and Sid Tekumalla, class of 2023, invented the helmet design during their senior year engineering capstone course.

Although neither inventor plays baseball, Barlow is a Phillies fan who aims to make the game safer.

“I always didn’t like it when a player would go down with an injury,” Barlow said. “After more research, we realized how preventable it was.”

In their patent application, Barlow and Tekumalla state that more than 240,000 baseball- and softball-related traumatic brain injuries were recorded between 1982 and 2015, data that aligns with a 2017 literature review in the Frontiers in Neurology.

Younger players most often suffered an injury after being hit by a bat, while post-adolescent athletes were more likely to suffer head injuries after being hit by a ball, the study states.

To address the risk of ball strikes against a player’s head, Tekumalla took inspiration from work done at the University of Texas to develop a honeycomb structure capable of absorbing impact.

The patented design uses nylon materials to construct the honeycomb, which sits in the helmet, and adds exterior protrusions that help carry the force of the impact away from a player’s head.

The inventors calculated that the most effective angle to connect the interior honeycomb to the exterior protrusions is about 15-25 degrees. The goal is to reduce the overall impact force by at least 80%.

Barlow and Tekumalla started the testing process using materials they 3-D printed at school and a baseball pitching machine.

An adviser, Frank Schweighardt, helped connect the students with industry professionals who completed further testing.

The resulting device is scalable so it can be adapted to both youth and adult helmets.

“We’re going to be looking for companies to sell it to,” Barlow said.

Attorney Jim McDaniel assisted Barlow and Tekumalla as they went through the multiyear process of securing a patent.

Now that the design is patented, companies can reach out to the inventors if they want to pay to complete further testing or buy a full license of the technology, Schweighardt said.

Schweighardt, who worked for Air Products for 29 years before taking a leadership role at the Da Vinci Science Center, advised Barlow and Tekumalla as part of a program he developed to shepherd students through the patent process. That program has now earned a dozen patents.

“My role was to make sure they’re asking the right questions,” Schweighardt said.

Making an impact

Determining when the interior padding of a helmet has been damaged enough that it has become ineffective can be tricky, Liberty High School Athletic Director Fred Harris said.

Harris, who has baseball coaching experience, said helmets are sent to a third-party inspector at the end of each season to determine if they can be recertified as safe for another season. Barlow and Tekumalla’s invention could extend the lifespan of helmets, Harris said.

“They’re a true example of kids that had an idea and used science and our science program here to pursue a passion,” Harris said, “and I think it’s really cool that two kids from Liberty High School pursued their passion and potentially have made an entire sports industry safer.”

Barlow has earned pilot licenses through his aviation studies at the Florida Institute of Technology. He will graduate this spring and aims to pursue a career as a flight instructor.

Tekumalla is a junior at Penn State, studying computer and data science.

They both credit their Liberty High engineering courses with imparting technical knowledge that continues to benefit their studies.

Barlow said his engineering background has made him better able to identify mechanical issues on planes.

“I think the best thing engineering taught me was problem solving,” he said.

The two also credited Liberty High instructors Walter Marshaleck, Maclean Pearson and Kristin Stuby for effectively building their engineering knowledge.

“Sid and Joseph are highly motivated young men who persevered through the patent process to obtain a patent on their PLTW capstone engineering project,” Stuby said in a news release. “I facilitated and led them through the engineering design process, which gave them the foundation to pursue their idea after graduation. What excites me most is that the small-scale testing they conducted in a high school setting was later confirmed through large-scale, industry-standard testing.”

THIBODAUX, La. (AP) — The teasing was relentless. Nude images of a 13-year-old girl and her friends, generated by artificial intelligence, were circulating on social media and had become the talk of a Louisiana middle school.

The girls begged for help, first from a school guidance counselor and then from a sheriff’s deputy assigned to their school. But the images were shared on Snapchat, an app that deletes messages seconds after they’re viewed, and the adults couldn’t find them. The principal had doubts they even existed.

Among the kids, the pictures were still spreading. When the 13-year-old girl stepped onto the Lafourche Parish school bus at the end of the day, a classmate was showing one of them to a friend.

“That’s when I got angry,” the eighth grader recalled at her discipline hearing.

Fed up, she attacked a boy on the bus, inviting others to join her. She was kicked out of Sixth Ward Middle School for more than 10 weeks and sent to an alternative school. She said the boy whom she and her friends suspected of creating the images wasn’t sent to that alternative school with her. The 13-year-old girl’s attorneys allege he avoided school discipline altogether.

When the sheriff’s department looked into the case, they took the opposite actions. They charged two of the boys who’d been accused of sharing explicit images — and not the girl.

The Louisiana episode highlights the nightmarish potential of AI deepfakes. They can, and do, upend children’s lives — at school, and at home. And while schools are working to address artificial intelligence in classroom instruction, they often have done little to prepare for what the new tech means for cyberbullying and harassment.

Once again, as kids increasingly use new tech to hurt one another, adults are behind the curve, said Sergio Alexander, a research associate at Texas Christian University focused on emerging technology.

“When we ignore the digital harm, the only moment that becomes visible is when the victim finally breaks,” Alexander said.

In Lafourche Parish, the school district followed all its protocols for reporting misconduct, Superintendent Jarod Martin said in a statement. He said a “one-sided story” had been presented of the case that fails to illustrate its “totality and complex nature.”

A girl’s nightmare begins with rumors

After hearing rumors about the nude images, the 13-year-old said she marched with two friends — one nearly in tears — to the guidance counselor around 7 a.m. on Aug. 26. The Associated Press isn’t naming her because she is a minor and because AP doesn’t normally name victims of sexual crimes.

She was there for moral support, not initially realizing there were images of her, too, according to testimony at her school disciplinary hearing.

Ultimately, the weeks-long investigation at the school in Thibodaux, about 45 miles southwest of New Orleans, uncovered AI-generated nude images of eight female middle school students and two adults, the district and sheriff’s office said in a joint statement.

“Full nudes with her face put on them” is how the girl’s father, Joseph Daniels, described them.

Until recently, it took some technical skill to make realistic deepfakes. Technology now makes it easy to pluck a photo off social media, “nudify” it and create a viral nightmare for an unsuspecting classmate.

Most schools are “just kind of burying their heads in the sand, hoping that this isn’t happening,” said Sameer Hinduja, co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center and professor of criminology at Florida Atlantic University.

Lafourche Parish School District was just starting to develop policies on artificial intelligence. The school-level AI guidance mainly addressed academics, according to documents provided through a records request. The district also hadn’t updated its training on cyberbullying to reflect the threat of AI-generated, sexually explicit images. The curriculum its schools used was from 2018.

A school investigation hits obstacles

Although the girls at Sixth Ward Middle School hadn’t seen the images firsthand, they heard about them from boys at school. Based on those conversations, the girls accused a classmate and two students from other schools of creating and spreading the nudes on Snapchat and possibly TikTok.

The principal, Danielle Coriell, said an investigation came up cold that day as no student took responsibility. The deputy assigned to the school searched social media for the images unsuccessfully, according to a recording of the disciplinary hearing.

“I was led to believe that this was just hearsay and rumors,” the girl’s father said, recounting a conversation he had that morning with the school counselor.

But the girl was miserable, and a police incident report showed more girls were reporting that they were victims, too. The 13-year-old returned to the counselor in the afternoon, asking to call her father. She said she was refused.

Her father says she sent a text message that said, “Dad,” and nothing else. They didn’t talk. With the mocking unrelenting, the girl texted her sister, “It’s not getting handled.”

As the school day wound down, the principal was skeptical. At the disciplinary hearing, the girl’s attorney asked why the sheriff’s deputy didn’t check the phone of the boy the girls were accusing and why he was allowed on the same bus as the girl.

“Kids lie a lot,” responded Coriell, the principal. “They lie about all kinds of things. They blow lots of things out of proportion on a daily basis. In 17 years, they do it all the time. So to my knowledge, at 2 o’clock when I checked again, there were no pictures.”

A fight breaks out on the school bus

When the girl stepped onto the bus 15 minutes later, the boy was showing the AI-generated images to a friend. Fake nude images of her friends were visible on the boy’s phone, the girl said, a claim backed up by a photo taken on the bus. A video from the school bus showed at least a half-dozen students circulating the images, said Martin, the superintendent, at a school board meeting.

“I went the whole day with getting bullied and getting made fun of about my body,” the girl said at her hearing. When she boarded the bus, she said, anger was building up.

After seeing the boy and his phone, she slapped him, said Coriell, the principal. The boy shrugged off the slap, a video shows.

She hit him a second time. Then, the principal said, the girl asked aloud: “Why am I the only one doing this?” Two classmates hit the boy, the principal said, before the 13-year-old climbed over a seat and punched and stomped on him.

Video of the fight was posted on Facebook. “Overwhelming social media sentiment was one of outrage and a demand that the students involved in the fight be held accountable,” the district and sheriff’s office said in their joint statement released in November.

The girl had no past disciplinary problems, but she was assigned to an alternative school as the district moved to expel her for a full semester — 89 school days.

Weeks later, a boy is charged

It was on the day of the girl’s disciplinary hearing, three weeks after the fight, that the first of the boys was charged.

The student was charged with 10 counts of unlawful dissemination of images created by artificial intelligence under a new Louisiana state law, part of a wave of such legislation around the country. A second boy was charged in December with identical charges, the sheriff’s department said. Neither was identified by authorities because of their ages.

The girl would face no charges because of what the sheriff’s office described as the “totality of the circumstances.”

At the disciplinary hearing, the principal refused to answer questions from the girl’s attorneys about what kind of school discipline the boy would face.

The district said in a statement that federal student privacy laws prohibit it from discussing individual students’ disciplinary records. Gregory Miller, an attorney for the girl, said he has no knowledge of any school discipline for the classmate accused of sharing the images.

Ultimately, the panel expelled the 13-year-old. She wept, her father said.

“She just felt like she was victimized multiple times — by the pictures and by the school not believing her and by them putting her on a bus and then expelling her for her actions,” he said in an interview.

The fallout sends a student off course

After she was sent to the alternative school, the girl started skipping meals, her father said. Unable to concentrate, she completed none of the school’s online work for several days before her father got her into therapy for depression and anxiety.

Nobody initially noticed when she stopped doing her assignments, her father said.

“She kind of got left behind,” he said.

Her attorneys appealed to the school board, and another hearing was scheduled for seven weeks later.

By then, so much time had passed that she could have returned to her old school on probation. But because she’d missed assignments before getting treated for depression, the district wanted her to remain at the alternative site another 12 weeks.

For students who are suspended or expelled, the impact can last years. They’re more likely to be suspended again. They become disconnected from their classmates, and they’re more likely to become disengaged from school. They’re more likely to have lower grades and lower graduation rates.

“She’s already been out of school enough,” one of the girl’s attorneys, Matt Ory, told the board on Nov. 5. “She is a victim.

“She,” he repeated, “is a victim.”

Martin, the superintendent, countered: “Sometimes in life we can be both victims and perpetrators.”

But the board was swayed. One member, Henry Lafont, said: “There are a lot of things in that video that I don’t like. But I’m also trying to put into perspective what she went through all day.” They allowed her to return to campus immediately. Her first day back at school was Nov. 7, although she will remain on probation until Jan. 29.

That means no dances, no sports and no extracurricular activities. She already missed out on basketball tryouts, meaning she won’t be able to play this season, her father said. He finds the situation “heartbreaking.”

“I was hoping she would make great friends, they would go to the high school together and, you know, it’d keep everybody out of trouble on the right tracks,” her father said. “I think they ruined that.”

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas.

Dawan was joined by several school district officials when addressing members of the media on Friday afternoon, pushing the firing of Principal Philip Leddy, who allegedly left a voicemail for a parent that contained “antisemitic comments” and defamatory remarks.

Dawan stressed she was “shocked and sickened” when the call was confirmed to school district officials; however, officials did not disclose the message’s content.

“In the call, the principal can be heard making antisemitic comments and speaking disparagingly about the parent to another staff member who was in the office at the time,” Dawan said, addressing the matter in a letter to students and families Friday.

School district officials declined to comment on when the call took place, but said they “received a copy of a voicemail recording” on Friday morning.

“The principal self-reported to our administration that he had indeed left the message, thought the call had disconnected, and then continued talking,” Dawan said in a statement.

Leddy, who’s been the elementary school principal since September 2023, has been placed on administrative leave. School district officials “will be recommending immediate termination” at a hearing scheduled for Monday morning. The other employee, who was heard on the recording, Dawan identified as a staff member who was also placed on administrative leave.

“I recognize, and I know intimately the concerns that have been raised in our community from our Jewish families, our Jewish students, and the fact that an administrator in our district would make the remarks that were made on this call on this recording is beyond deeply concerning,” Dawan told reporters on Friday. “The fact that another staff member would be engaging in this conversation and not immediately disrupt it, not immediately push back on it raises concerns for me of a deeper issue that is systemic, and we have to root that out.”

Wissahickon School Board President Amy Ginsburg sought to “echo the deep concern and disappointment,” expressing apprehension for students and community members.

“They will need time to process [the] fact that a trusted adult, a member of our school community, who should have been a role model, behaved in a hateful manner and displayed such poor judgment and lack of respect,” Ginsburg said.

“Wissahickon is no place for hate. This is a community where all students are welcome, and where safety, and work, and well-being truly is our priority,” she said.

Dawan noted that a staffing plan is in place to temporarily fill the school leadership role, although it’s unclear who will serve in the interim. Dawan added that counselors will be available on Monday for students and staff.

“We are committed to developing a full action plan to address this issue and to promote repair and eventually healing across our school community,” Dawan said in a statement.

Rabbi reacts to incident amid rising antisemitism

A dozen clergy members were in attendance as Dawan emphasized the vital role the local faith community plays. Dawan underscored how they “can help us navigate such concerning incidents, such concerning times.”

Rabbi Kevin Lefkowitz, of Tiferet Bet Israel in Blue Bell, was among those present on Friday and said he heard the voicemail recording himself.

“I was appalled,” Lefkowitz told reporters following Friday’s press conference, adding ,“the way he said it, it got real quiet as if he knew he was saying something wrong.

“If you’re speaking that way in a one-on-one conversation where you don’t think you’re being recorded, you don’t know you’re leaving a voicemail, and you know you’re saying it quietly like that,” he continued. “No, I think he knew what he was saying was wrong.”

Dawan confirmed Friday that Leddy hadn’t “made comments like this before” or exhibited prior occasions of related misconduct.

“There have never been any concerns from this principal as it relates to such hateful remarks, and quite honestly, that’s what’s most alarming,” Dawan said. “The fact that this was an individual who by all other standards appears to be aligned with the mission, vision, the shared values of our district and this person would make such hateful remarks about members of our community, and clearly antisemitic hateful remarks, is what raises great concern for us.”

Lefkowitz agreed, adding, “for somebody who presents himself, and has been presented as one of the good ones, and runs a school for kids. He’s in charge of keeping our kids safe. For it to come out of his mouth so carelessly, so easily, boiled my blood.”

Abington history teacher named Alfred Lerner Fellow focusing on Holocaust education

Friday’s local development comes as instances of antisemitism have been on the rise globally. There were 9,354 anti-Semitic incidents reported across the U.S. in 2024, according to findings from the Anti-Defamation League.

Most recently, more than a dozen people were killed in a shooting in Bondi Beach, Australia, on the first night of Hanukkah, per media reports. Other noted instances include an arson attack at the governor’s mansion in Harrisburg while Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family were in residence; the fatal shooting of two individuals outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., and an attack on Jewish demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado, who were calling for the release of hostages in the Middle East.

“A comment like his, whether it’s a joke or not, it results in Jewish deaths,” Lefkowitz said. “There’s a correlation, and I’m not saying there’s a violence issue right now … I think there’s a concern, and a rise in antisemitism generally that leads to much more dangerous results for Jews.

“I study history, and I’ll tell you, I was hearing my history books talking,” Lefkowitz said. “And you look back, and you think about all the things people have done to Jews, it’s not done by evil individuals, usually. It’s usually done by the average person that participates in the mob that gets involved in the stream of antisemitism.”

Lefkowitz commended the district’s intentions for “immediate action termination” and partnerships with faith leaders, but stressed “more needs to be done from the district’s side” to foster a safer environment for children.

“These are students that are in danger of an antisemitic current, and I’d like to see tangible steps to root out what’s become a systemic problem,” Lefkowitz said.

Lefkowitz said he’d “like to see healing done for the kids,” paying attention to concerns, but stressed that pride shouldn’t diminish for Jewish students. As Friday marked the fifth night of Hanukkah, Lefkowitz said that Jewish students “should be proud to be Jews.”

“Hannukkah is not just a festival of lights. Hannukkah is about Jewish pride,” Lefkowitz said. “We light the menorahs ideally, traditionally we put them on the windowsill to show how proud we are to be Jews. We’re proud of our rituals, we’re proud of our holidays, we’re proud of our values, and I’m not going to let somebody like this put our menorah in the bathroom.”