High school defends staying silent while boys made AI nudes of 59 classmates

高中为“在男生制作59名同学AI裸照期间保持沉默”进行辩护

One of the first schools to shut down after students were found making AI nudes of female classmates is now asking a court to toss a lawsuit filed by victims who claimed that the school stayed silent for months while the emboldened boys targeted many more girls. 在发现学生制作女性同学AI裸照并因此停课的学校中，有一所学校目前正请求法院驳回受害者提起的诉讼。受害者声称，在胆大妄为的男生针对更多女生进行骚扰的数月里，校方一直保持沉默。

In a motion to dismiss this week, Lancaster Country Day School (LCDS)—a private K-12 school in Pennsylvania with fewer than 600 students—argued that it was false to say the school never reported the harm to law enforcement. The tip that the school received came from the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General, which is itself a law enforcement agency, the filing said. 在本周提交的一份驳回动议中，位于宾夕法尼亚州、学生人数不足600人的私立K-12学校——兰开斯特乡村走读学校（LCDS）辩称，称该校从未向执法部门报告此事的说法是不实的。文件指出，校方收到的举报信息来自宾夕法尼亚州总检察长办公室，而该办公室本身就是一个执法机构。

It’s also false to say the school knew that girls were being targeted, the school argued, because the tip did not mention any specific student victims. LCDS said that “it looked into the tip as best as their educator training allowed,” but the tip only identified one bad actor and was too vague to identify any potential victims. At no time did the school see the images, and the school maintains that all activity connected to the AI nudes happened off-campus. 校方还辩称，说学校知道女生遭到针对的说法也是错误的，因为举报信息中并未提及任何具体的受害者学生。LCDS表示，校方“在教育工作者培训所允许的范围内尽力调查了举报”，但举报仅指认了一名作恶者，且内容过于模糊，无法识别任何潜在受害者。校方从未见过这些图片，并坚称所有与AI裸照相关的活动均发生在校外。

Instead of warning all parents that inappropriate AI-generated images were potentially being made, the school only interviewed the boy accused of making the image and his mother. The boy has since pled guilty with another male student but at the time denied making the AI nudes, and the mother provided no more information. Ultimately, LCDS closed its investigation and shared results with the attorney general, then never heard back. 学校没有警告所有家长可能存在不当AI生成图片的情况，而是仅约谈了被指控制作图片的男生及其母亲。该男生后来与另一名男学生认罪，但在当时否认制作了AI裸照，其母亲也没有提供更多信息。最终，LCDS结束了调查并将结果告知了总检察长，此后便再无下文。

In its motion to dismiss, the school argued that it had no duty to report the images to local police because it’s only required to report tips on actual child abuse, and AI images don’t qualify as that in the state, at least not yet. An attorney representing the school, Rory Connaughton of Saxton Stump, told Ars that “it is impossible to assert that the school failed to report to law enforcement when law enforcement provided the tip to the school and the school reported back to law enforcement.” 在驳回动议中，校方辩称其没有义务向当地警方报告这些图片，因为学校仅被要求报告有关实际虐待儿童的举报，而AI图片在该州尚不属于此类范畴。代表学校的律师、来自Saxton Stump律所的Rory Connaughton告诉Ars：“当执法部门向学校提供举报，而学校又向执法部门反馈时，断言学校未向执法部门报告是不可能的。”

“The Attorney General’s office had the discretion and legal authority to refer this matter to the local police or conduct its own investigation,” Connaughton said. “That it did not use its investigative authority or refer the matter to the local police when armed with the same information available to Lancaster Country Day School, makes clear that the school acted properly and did not fail to fulfill any legal duty.” “总检察长办公室有权力和法律授权将此事移交当地警方或自行展开调查，”Connaughton说。“在掌握了与兰开斯特乡村走读学校相同信息的情况下，它没有行使调查权或将此事移交当地警方，这清楚地表明学校处理得当，并未未能履行任何法律义务。”

Ars could not reach the attorney general to comment, but a spokesperson told a local news site, Lancaster Online, that the office “does not investigate information provided in tips. Rather, the information is passed along to the relevant school and/or police to investigate the information provided.” Ars未能联系到总检察长置评，但一位发言人告诉当地新闻网站Lancaster Online，该办公室“不对举报中提供的信息进行调查。相反，信息会被转交给相关学校和/或警方，由他们对所提供的信息进行调查。”

“Boys will be boys,” school head allegedly said

校领导据称曾说“男生就是男生”

Girls suing the school argued that at least 59 girls were traumatized by “an extended, catastrophic institutional failure.” They claimed that they “were forced to go to high school while ‘deepfake’ nude images of them were circulating within the school community,” and that appallingly, Lindsay Deibler-Wallace, assistant head of Upper School, took no action to protect them after telling parents that “boys will be boys.” 起诉学校的女生们认为，至少有59名女生因“一场长期且灾难性的机构失职”而受到创伤。她们声称，她们“被迫在‘深度伪造’的裸照于校园社区内流传时继续上学”，且令人震惊的是，高中部助理校长Lindsay Deibler-Wallace在对家长说出“男生就是男生”后，并未采取任何行动保护她们。

The victims alleged that the school never suspended the students even after “the LCDS upper school was in a state of acute panic and disruption related to the AI-generated images.” Instead, the school allegedly discouraged girls from going to police, while withholding information from parents and obstructing efforts to investigate the distribution of AI-generated child sex abuse materials (CSAM), such as by refusing to respond to detectives seeking a yearbook photo for comparison. 受害者指控称，即使在“LCDS高中部因AI生成图片陷入极度恐慌和混乱”之后，学校也从未对这些学生进行停课处理。相反，据称学校劝阻女生报警，同时向家长隐瞒信息，并阻挠对AI生成儿童性虐待材料（CSAM）传播的调查，例如拒绝回应侦探为比对而索要毕业纪念册照片的要求。

Two male students have since pleaded guilty to 59 felony counts of sexual abuse of children, and their victims are hoping the court will rule that LCDS was required to report the incident to police, both by law and by “reasonable institutional practice.” Ars could not reach the victims’ lawyer for comment. 此后，两名男学生已承认犯有59项性虐待儿童的重罪，受害者们希望法院能裁定LCDS根据法律和“合理的机构惯例”有义务向警方报告此事。Ars未能联系到受害者的律师置评。

However, their lawsuit emphasized that on top of emotional harms, girls targeted were also “effectively deprived” of “equal access to the educational opportunities and benefits provided by LCDS.” They’ve further accused the school of violating Title IX by being “deliberately indifferent” to sexual harassment that was “severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive.” 然而，她们的诉讼强调，除了情感伤害外，受害女生还被“实质性地剥夺”了“平等获得LCDS提供的教育机会和福利的权利”。她们进一步指控学校对“严重、普遍且客观上具有冒犯性”的性骚扰表现出“蓄意冷漠”，从而违反了《教育法第九条》（Title IX）。

Gaps in laws may let school off the hook

法律漏洞可能让学校逃脱责任

Notably, another Pennsylvania school coping with AI-generated nudes on its campus did report the incident to police, according to a press release from lawmakers pushing to update the state’s law to ensure that schools always immediately report AI nudes. In that case, a middle school student targeted 11 female classmates in deepfake images, and the school delayed contacting police until after concluding its own internal investigation. 值得注意的是，根据推动更新州法律以确保学校始终立即报告AI裸照的议员们发布的新闻稿，宾夕法尼亚州另一所处理校园内AI生成裸照事件的学校确实向警方报告了此事。在那起案件中，一名初中生利用深度伪造图片针对11名女同学，学校在完成内部调查后才联系警方。

State lawmakers argued that schools should not be delaying reporting AI nudes until their own probes end but rather should be required to promptly tip off police, who are better positioned to investigate the crimes. Troublingly, delays in reporting can result “not only in lost evidence,” but also cause “significant trauma to the female victims,” whose images may spread further the longer the harm goes unchecked. 州议员们认为，学校不应等到内部调查结束才报告AI裸照，而应被要求及时通知警方，因为警方更有能力调查此类犯罪。令人担忧的是，延迟报告不仅会导致“证据丢失”，还会对“女性受害者造成重大创伤”，因为伤害持续的时间越长，这些图片传播得就越广。

The press release said that lawmakers were motivated to close a loophole in a law defining child abuse that doesn’t explicitly mention AI-generated CSAM. “This bill will make certain that law enforcement is notified at the earliest possible moment, and it makes other changes that put the wellbeing and safety of our children first,” the press release said. But that bill is not yet law, LCDS said, and is currently under review by the state Senate. 新闻稿称，议员们旨在填补法律中关于虐待儿童定义的一个漏洞，该法律并未明确提及AI生成的儿童性虐待材料。“该法案将确保执法部门在第一时间得到通知，并做出其他将儿童福祉和安全放在首位的调整，”新闻稿称。但LCDS表示，该法案尚未成为法律，目前正由州参议院审议。

In LCDS’s motion to dismiss, the school claimed that the very fact that lawmakers are moving to update the law is proof that… 在LCDS的驳回动议中，校方声称，议员们正在推动更新法律这一事实本身就证明了……