Teachers Face AI Deepfake Harassment Across 3 Schools as Students Spread Sexualized Fakes
Updated
Updated · WIRED · Aug 24
Teachers Face AI Deepfake Harassment Across 3 Schools as Students Spread Sexualized Fakes
3 articles · Updated · WIRED · Aug 24
Summary
Luis DeSantiago, a California substitute teacher, says students created a sexualized AI image of him, shared it on TikTok and Snapchat, and kept circulating it even after one student received in-school suspension.
The harassment then followed him to a local high school, where he says the same fake image was AirDropped in class, prompting another investigation and leaving him unwilling to return to the district this year.
WIRED found at least 3 other educators reporting similar abuse, including fake nude images, impersonation videos, and altered clips in the US and UK that damaged trust with students and changed how teachers work.
Federal law now criminalizes publishing nonconsensual intimate deepfakes online, and employment lawyers say student-made sexualized images can amount to workplace sexual harassment, though schools still lack a clear response blueprint.
Teachers interviewed said the cases reflect a wider culture of casual AI misuse among students, raising fears that staff and classmates could face the same abuse again.