Stop GenAI Usage In Beverly High School's Yearbook & Posters
The Issue
This past school year, an assembly was held for the class of 2027 discussing the upcoming year's yearbook. During the presentation there was one thing that just didn't sit right with me. During the assembly, one of the speakers discussed a possibility of using AI to "touch up" images of students or school events. I have also seen plenty of fellow Beverly Panthers use generative AI for posters for the school.
Ever since the summer started, this has been on my mind constantly. It is deeply upsetting to see that this is even a consideration for the 26/27 yearbook, and more so already being used for posters. Thankfully, using generative AI in the yearbook has not been officially put into place as far as I know. But I wanted to take action before it's too late. And here's why:
There are countless people in school who want to pursue a creative career in their life. More specifically, photography. I know plenty of people who would like to either become photographers or take photos for fun who would absolutely love getting an opportunity to get experience, especially to support the school. Implementing AI in our yearbooks and posters actively takes away those opportunities for those students and takes away real, human school spirit. It discourages creative minds to pursue their dreams, and is outright disrespectful to people who put so much time and effort into their hard work.
Not only does it steal opportunities from actual humans and is blatantly disrespectful, but it actively advertises laziness. For decades schools across the world have taken fantastic photos of real students at football games, theater shows, and other important events, so why does that have to change now? We should be representing real students at our school, not fake generated "people".
Our school should not be using, advertising, or supporting generative AI whatsoever. It destroys the hope of creative people and encourages people to give up real time and effort for slop just because it's "quicker and easier". And to anyone wondering, no, I did not use AI to write this or create the image. I took about 20-30 minutes out of my day to write my true feelings about this dystopian possibility without the help of a stupid chatbot.
1,039
The Issue
This past school year, an assembly was held for the class of 2027 discussing the upcoming year's yearbook. During the presentation there was one thing that just didn't sit right with me. During the assembly, one of the speakers discussed a possibility of using AI to "touch up" images of students or school events. I have also seen plenty of fellow Beverly Panthers use generative AI for posters for the school.
Ever since the summer started, this has been on my mind constantly. It is deeply upsetting to see that this is even a consideration for the 26/27 yearbook, and more so already being used for posters. Thankfully, using generative AI in the yearbook has not been officially put into place as far as I know. But I wanted to take action before it's too late. And here's why:
There are countless people in school who want to pursue a creative career in their life. More specifically, photography. I know plenty of people who would like to either become photographers or take photos for fun who would absolutely love getting an opportunity to get experience, especially to support the school. Implementing AI in our yearbooks and posters actively takes away those opportunities for those students and takes away real, human school spirit. It discourages creative minds to pursue their dreams, and is outright disrespectful to people who put so much time and effort into their hard work.
Not only does it steal opportunities from actual humans and is blatantly disrespectful, but it actively advertises laziness. For decades schools across the world have taken fantastic photos of real students at football games, theater shows, and other important events, so why does that have to change now? We should be representing real students at our school, not fake generated "people".
Our school should not be using, advertising, or supporting generative AI whatsoever. It destroys the hope of creative people and encourages people to give up real time and effort for slop just because it's "quicker and easier". And to anyone wondering, no, I did not use AI to write this or create the image. I took about 20-30 minutes out of my day to write my true feelings about this dystopian possibility without the help of a stupid chatbot.
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Petition created on August 16, 2026