For Luis DeSantiago, a substitute teacher in Los Banos, California, a seemingly innocuous March 12th workday took a disturbing turn. As he juggled his responsibilities at a local coffee shop, his phone began to buzz with an alarming series of text messages. A colleague alerted him to an AI-generated photograph circulating on social media, prompting a query from a friend’s cousin: was it him? Initially, DeSantiago dismissed the concern, confident that such inappropriate content would swiftly fall foul of TikTok’s community guidelines and be removed. However, the reality that unfolded was far more unsettling.
"When I finally saw the image, that’s when it felt like a punch to the gut," DeSantiago recounted to WIRED. The AI-generated picture bore a disturbing resemblance to a mirror selfie he had taken during his college years. The original photo depicted him in his work attire, a standard professional pose. The doctored version, however, superimposed him into revealing lingerie and contorted his stance into a suggestive posture. This incident was not an isolated occurrence; it marked the beginning of a months-long ordeal that would entangle two school districts, students, and administrators, and DeSantiago is far from the only educator falling victim to this escalating digital abuse.
WIRED has spoken with three other educators who allege that their students have created and disseminated sexually explicit, AI-generated images and videos of them. These teachers describe the profound distress, disappointment, and, in some instances, a fundamental reassessment of their professional relationships and their very approach to teaching.
The Digital Assault Begins: A Substitute Teacher’s Nightmare
DeSantiago’s initial investigation into the origin of the fabricated image led him to a TikTok account that had shared the photo. The profile featured the real name of a student he recognized from the local middle school where he frequently substituted. Based on the account’s followers and interactions, and his understanding of local student social circles, DeSantiago suspected the involvement of two other students. The irony was not lost on him; he was scheduled to teach at that very middle school the following day.
He promptly reported the incident to the assistant principal, who offered assurances that the matter would be handled. That evening, a search of his name on TikTok revealed an even more disturbing development: another student had created an account impersonating him, using a slightly misspelled version of his name and his profile picture.
The ensuing weeks were a blur of communication between DeSantiago, school administrators, the parents of the implicated students, and even law enforcement. "If these students aren’t afraid of generating and posting these images of me, I am concerned of what they may be circulating privately through text messages and group chats," DeSantiago wrote to the principal, highlighting the broader implications. "Keep in mind this could include other students as well."
One student admitted to creating the AI-generated image and faced disciplinary action in the form of in-school suspension. DeSantiago was later informed that the image had also spread via Snapchat. Despite these measures, the fabricated photograph continued to proliferate, with other students sharing it and DeSantiago himself receiving lewd, sexual comments on his TikTok account.
Disturbed by the ongoing dissemination and the lack of complete resolution, DeSantiago informed the administrators that he would not be accepting further assignments at the middle school until the matter was fully addressed. The Los Banos Unified School District, when contacted by WIRED, declined to comment on the specific case.
Seeking to continue his work, DeSantiago accepted a substitute position at the local high school. However, the digital harassment followed him. During a class, he received an AirDropped image of the same AI-generated photo, which was quickly retracted, indicating its circulation among the students. The high school principal initiated an "immediate investigation" and offered support, including a meeting or access to the school counselor. Nevertheless, DeSantiago stated that he does not feel safe returning to the district this year.
The Legal and Ethical Landscape of AI Harassment
The dissemination of nonconsensual, sexually explicit images, whether authentic or AI-generated, carries significant legal ramifications. In the United States, such actions can constitute cyberstalking and violate federal laws like the "Take It Down Act," which criminalizes the online publication of nonconsensual intimate visual depictions, including computer-generated ones.
While DeSantiago and other educators have reported incidents, direct reporting of the content to the platforms where it appears has not always been the primary course of action. Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, reiterated its policies against harassment and sexual content, which explicitly prohibit the sharing of AI-generated or manipulated material intended to humiliate or sexually harass individuals. A spokesperson confirmed that the company has established reporting mechanisms and is continuously developing features to enhance user safety. TikTok did not provide comment by the time of publication.
Donna Ballman, a retired employment advocacy lawyer, characterizes the creation and sharing of sexual images of teachers by students as a "clear case" of workplace sexual harassment. Federal antidiscrimination laws obligate employers, including school districts, to foster a work environment free from sexual harassment. This responsibility typically translates to disciplinary actions against the perpetrators or measures to ensure the victim’s safety, such as classroom reassignment. However, Ballman notes a significant gap: "there’s no blueprint" for how schools should respond to these novel forms of digital abuse, and administrators are not always required to disclose the specific disciplinary measures taken against a student to the affected teacher. The paramount duty, Ballman explains, is to "make and create a safe environment for the victim."
A Growing Trend: Educators’ Anonymized Accounts
The experiences shared with WIRED paint a grim picture of a widening problem. A middle school teacher in her mid-twenties, who requested anonymity due to her school district’s policies on public commentary, spoke of her growing apprehension. "I’m bracing for the next wave," she admitted, having witnessed an alarming increase in AI-generated content used to harass educators.
Last year, she recounted, students accessed public photographs of a teacher in her sixties. They then manipulated these images to depict her engaging in sexual acts, disseminating them within a private Snapchat group. More recently, she learned from a student about a TikTok account impersonating her. The videos on this account featured her face with the tell-tale smoothness of AI generation, her mouth moving unnaturally, and her voice distorted. While some depicted benign activities like skydiving, others showed her discussing explicit sexual encounters.
She reported the TikTok account to her principal, who promised to investigate. Throughout the day, students continued to alert her to the account, with some claiming to know the classmate responsible for its creation, a student reportedly known for behavioral issues. "I know a lot of the kids that reported it to me genuinely believed that was my account, and that I was saying those things," she told WIRED, emphasizing the impact on her students’ perception. She urged them to report the account, which was subsequently removed.
The incident left her unsettled. During a subsequent faculty meeting, a colleague shared that he had also encountered a seemingly AI-generated video of himself being arrested, which he suspected was created by the same student. The harassment escalated from the digital realm to in-person confrontations, with the student verbally abusing her. When she raised this at a faculty meeting, the assistant principal revealed that the same student was harassing him with late-night calls and texts, and posting AI-generated images of him on TikTok. The principal eventually removed the student from her class and attempted to limit his contact, but the harassment persisted until the student left the district and the TikTok account was taken down.
She expressed concern that these behavioral issues are not isolated. "It’s kind of unsurprising that we are dealing with that, because these kids just have a hard time," she commented, adding, "I’m just worried about this happening again."
Shifting Dynamics: The Erosion of Trust
The pervasive nature of AI-generated harassment is fundamentally altering how educators interact with their students. Alice, a college counselor and administrator at a UK institution training 16- to 19-year-olds in vocational trades, described a deeply unsettling incident. She prided herself on her ability to serve as a mentor and confidante, engaging in sensitive conversations with her approximately 150 advisees annually.
This past winter, administrators informed her that a student had reported the circulation of two videos among his classmates. One appeared to be a genuine recording of her speaking with a student, while the other was a manipulated version depicting her undressing and dancing suggestively. Alice suspected the student who filed the report was the perpetrator, especially given their prior conversations about sensitive topics like drugs, parties, and safe sex. The student denied creating the video when questioned and subsequently withdrew from the college. The institution declined to comment.
"It makes me reflect as well on those conversations, thinking, did he think that he could overstep a line because we were having these discussions?" Alice pondered. "It makes you question everything."
Following the incident, the college granted Alice a few weeks of leave and implemented educational programs for students on the dangers of deepfakes. Upon her return, she observed a palpable shift in the classroom atmosphere. "I did have a really good rapport with my students—I do have a good rapport with my students," she affirmed, still cherishing her work. However, she admitted, "But it’s definitely made me a bit more cautious, a bit more vigilant when it comes to folks."
A Slippery Slope: The Normalization of Digital Misconduct
Luke Red, a sixth-grade teacher in Arizona, experienced a similar form of digital abuse when students posted an AI-generated photograph of him and another male teacher kissing in the comments section of his public TikTok account. Red attempted to have the accounts removed by reporting them to TikTok for violating age restrictions, but his requests were unsuccessful.
The school district launched an investigation and identified the student responsible, who admitted to creating and sharing the image. The student received a three-day suspension, the maximum penalty for a first-time sexual harassment offense for their age group, according to school district policy. The district did not provide comment.
Red described the aftermath as a "spiral." His primary concern shifted from the personal violation to the "enthusiastic, permissive culture surrounding AI use among his students." "It just got to the point where students felt comfortable enough creating inappropriate images," Red stated. "Obviously when you’re making your teachers do sexual things with these images, that’s where it crosses the line."
Ultimately, Red expressed more empathy for the students than for himself. "It’s just clear [that] so many kids nowadays just don’t understand not only how what they’re doing can affect others, but just what happens on the internet and how dangerous it can be," he concluded. This sentiment underscores the critical need for enhanced digital literacy education and a robust response from educational institutions to protect their staff from the escalating threat of AI-driven harassment.
