Teacher used personal ChatGPT account for child’s AI portrait, district says

A teacher used a personal ChatGPT Plus account to turn a 6-year-old’s photograph into an adult career portrait, district officials said in reporting summarized by Newser on November 3. Officials said the use was inconsistent with expectations and the images were deleted. The child’s mother, Nikki Anderson, had questioned both the privacy implications and the assignment’s purpose.

From a child’s photo to an imagined adult

The assignment began with a familiar classroom exercise: choosing a future career. Harper, a South Carolina first-grader, chose nursing and made a construction-paper portrait of herself in the role. Caitlin Gibson’s November 3 Washington Post story described that handmade picture alongside the AI-generated version the school sent home.

The AI exercise used a photograph of Harper as input and produced an image depicting her as a 25-year-old nurse. Newser, summarizing Gibson’s reporting, identified the tool as the teacher’s personal ChatGPT Plus account. That account detail adds to an incident USA TODAY first covered on October 23, when it reported Anderson’s objections and the district’s decision to stop similar assignments.

Anderson found the image in Harper’s school folder on October 16. She described a young woman with a baby face, sleek, wavy hair, a nurse’s uniform and a clipboard. Harper proudly explained that her specials teacher had made it with AI. She particularly liked the wavy hair she thought she would have as an adult.

For Anderson, that enthusiasm was part of the problem. Harper’s own paper portrait did not have wavy hair. In an Instagram post quoted by USA TODAY, Anderson objected that an algorithm’s picture of a successful adult woman had displaced her daughter’s interpretation. Her criticism was not simply that a computer had produced an image; it was that Harper had already completed the imaginative work herself.

She had already imagined the future. Made something incredible to represent it. What part of that needed to be finished by a computer?

Nikki Anderson, in an Instagram post quoted by USA TODAY

Permission for school photos, but not explicitly AI

Anderson told USA TODAY she had signed a beginning-of-year consent form allowing the school to use Harper’s photographs and artwork in media. It did not mention AI, she said. Her objection therefore concerned a specific use of her daughter’s image, not the absence of any school photo permission.

Charleston County School District told USA TODAY that the principal directed similar assignments to be discontinued after concerns were raised. The district said it already had responsible-technology policies and guidance, and had partnered with AI for Education in 2025 to develop an AI framework.

In that October 23 account, the district also said it was preparing districtwide educator training in the coming weeks. The planned instruction would cover AI literacy, student privacy, approved tools, ethical use and appropriate teaching practices. That was a training plan, not confirmation that educators had completed it.

Teaching AI is not the same as using it

Tina Mulqueen, a Washington State University Vancouver professor, told USA TODAY that teachers should not put students’ personally identifiable information into AI models. She also argued that children may need to learn how to use AI if it becomes expected in the workforce—but without taking learning away from them. She emphasized that teachers were navigating a difficult situation and were often well-intentioned.

Jason Yeh, cofounder of investment firm Patron and an investor in AI-powered personalized education, made a narrower distinction. Classroom AI conversations usually concern teaching AI literacy or improving learning, he told USA TODAY. He did not see how this portrait served either purpose. Yeh sometimes uses AI with his own children under parental supervision, yet said he would also be concerned by a similar school image.

Anderson likewise did not accuse the teacher of malicious intent. She said she supported teachers having tools that help manage their workloads, including AI. But she did not want her daughter interacting with it at six—a boundary she distinguished from wanting Harper to find science and technological advancement fascinating and useful.