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School Committee unanimously adopts policy restricting synthetic media, adds employee protections and annual review
Summary
The Beverly School Committee voted 9–0 to adopt a policy banning the creation or dissemination of synthetic media/deep fakes by district users, expand the policy's applicable categories (students, staff, volunteers, vendors), and direct the administration to create procedures and provide an annual policy review.
The Beverly School Committee voted unanimously (9–0) on June 24 to adopt a new policy restricting synthetic media and AI‑generated “deep fakes” and directing the administration to develop supporting procedures and an annual review cycle.
The superintendent proposed adding ‘‘applicable categories’’—students, employees, volunteers, contractors and vendors—to ensure the policy covers all district stakeholders. He also recommended explicit employee protections against voice cloning, face cloning and synthetic avatars and asked for the district to coordinate with law enforcement when necessary.
As presented in the meeting, the proposed policy language said that "neither students nor any staff member shall create, generate, possess, distribute, transmit, request, solicit, publish, or share synthetic media or deep fakes." The superintendent clarified additional employee‑focused protections, including prohibitions on AI‑generated impersonation and unauthorized use of staff images.
Why it matters: The policy aims to prevent impersonation and misrepresentation that could harm employees, students or the district’s public communications. The committee asked that administrative procedures be drafted to guide evidence preservation, parent/caregiver notification and law‑enforcement coordination.
What’s next: The committee adopted the policy as modified; district leadership will prepare administrative procedures over the coming months and return any significant procedural changes to the committee for review. The committee recorded the statutory authority for executive session discussion earlier in the meeting as Massachusetts law chapter 30A, section 21A.
