DO NOT DONATE MONEY TO THIS PETITION
Upper St. Clair remains among the best high schools in western PA. With a multimillion dollar budget, countless awards and recognitions, and multiple powerhouse sports teams, it is, all things considered, a fairly nice place to spend four years.

Which is exactly why I never thought I'd say that I'm getting a tiny little bit of second-hand embarrassment from it.

What prompt did they even put in for this? "Tiny Scottish guy getting chased by a Panther in the jungle?" This is an insult to USC and  Canon-Mac. And Scottish people.

The usage of generative AI to create images and graphics is an incredibly bad look for the USC School District. When students of USC and other schools see an AI generated image, it is immediately apparent that AI was used. Using AI does not create a more modern image for the school; in fact, most people of high school age hold a strong dislike for the use of generative AI in advertising. A study by Rival Technologies found that 74% of Gen Z react negatively to AI-generated marketing, and the same logic applies to social media posts and graphics from USC. Using AI erodes respect for our school, both in the eyes of its own students and students from other schools.

Even further, AI was seemingly used to create 9/11-related graphics both in the school and on social media. At that point, it crosses from lazy to downright disrespectful.

And the slop isn't only getting pumped out by the football team's social media, either. It's everywhere, even in the school itself. In the "Panther's Den" area of the cafeteria, there's a sign stating the prices of pretzels from the new pretzel machine with an AI generated graphic. In the same area, there's an AI generated graphic listing the rules of the snack bar.

These graphics are not only annoying to see everywhere, they are also indicative of laziness and needless corner-cutting on the school district's part. It isn't an issue of funding; an article on the Upper St. Clair School District's official website sets the approved budget for the 26-27 school year at a whopping $111,566,288, 78% of which is paid for by USC residents' taxes.

So how could this be fixed? Simple. Go back to the way it was before. Even in the imaginary scenario in which there really isn't enough money to make real graphics, there are currently 1,283 students in the high school. Maybe I'm crazy, but I'm fairly certain it would be stupidly easy to find a group of students fully prepared to create graphics for the school district and its sports teams.

I hope the school district will take this petition into consideration, and stop their use of AI-generated imagery. As funny as it is I don't want to have to keep sending them to my friends to laugh at together.

(No AI was used in the writing of this body of text. If I can do it, so can you)