California school districts are employing AI in classrooms to ready students for tomorrow, but early experiments have already triggered controversy.
In December 2025, a fourth-grade class at an elementary school in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) received a homework assignment asking students to create a book cover of Pippi Longstocking. One of the fourth-grade students asked the program to generate an image of “long stockings, red haired girl with braids sticking out.” But the image produced for the student was explicitly sexual.
The tool used by the students was Adobe Express for Education, a graphic design software program. Julie, An LAUSD parent, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the program was downloaded through a learning management system called Schoology. Julie noted that Schoology is the district’s platform for its approved K-12 content.
It is unclear whether students were explicitly instructed to use the AI tool, but Julie stated they weren’t discouraged from using it.
