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The Palo Alto Unified School District denied all claims in a response to a federal lawsuit filed by local parent Takashi Kato, who believes his son was falsely accused of using artificial intelligence to write an essay, effectively lowering his grade.
The district’s attorneys called Kato’s allegations that his child was discriminated against as a multilingual Asian student “theories” that aren’t supported by evidence and that the teacher intentionally engaged in wrongdoing. In the June 12 response, attorneys also held that as an adult representative of the student, Kato is not liable to monetary damages.
“Defendants deny that Plaintiff is entitled to the relief sought by the Complaint,” wrote Adam Davis from the firm Davis, Bengtson & Young, which is representing the district. “Defendants deny all allegations and suggestions of wrongdoing … that would support an award of damages of any kind, or that would support a claim for attorneys’ fees.”
The district said that Kato did not attempt to remediate the situation by filing a district complaint process before pursuing the federal lawsuit and that the teacher’s behavior did not violate “clearly established statutory or constitutional rights.”
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Kato, who works in AI, according to his LinkedIn, claimed otherwise. He is requesting $150 million in damages.
Kato’s son, a sophomore at Palo Alto High School, submitted his essay about “The Crucible,” an Arthur Miller play about Salem witch trials, on October 30, 2025. Two weeks later, he submitted the essay on Turnitin, a popular tool the district uses for AI detection in student submissions.
The tool flagged 76% of his essay as being influenced or generated by AI, according to the lawsuit. In response to the result, his teacher, Sarah Bartlett, engaged in her “non-punitive” cheating policy, which allows students to retake the assignment in class.
Kato’s son received a D on the retake, dropping his final grade to a C, according to the lawsuit. He believes his son was unjustly punished and that district grading policies are arbitrary.
Although the district has sent teachers and administrators to attend workshops on AI, it has not created an overarching policy against the technology’s use on campus. Teachers are instead encouraged to create their own policies.
California teachers are granted autonomous grading authority and, in the allegations of “bad faith,” the court must defer to the educator’s discernment, according to the district response to the lawsuit.
The defendants in the suit are “immune from liability for civil damages because their alleged conduct did not violate any clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known,” Davis wrote.
“At all times, their actions were discretionary, objective, and legally reasonable under prevailing law,” he wrote.
In response to the cheating allegation, Kato submitted over a thousand pages of draft history and evidence to refute the claim and demanded the school give his son a “neutral” B grade by March 6. When school staff didn’t give in, he took the issue to federal court.
Kato wrote that he hopes to put an end to the in-person retake process and the use of Turnitin, technology he called unreliable, especially for multilingual students. But more specifically, he requested his student’s grade be returned to a B and that the allegation be wiped from his record, so as not to inhibit his college acceptance.
“The Turnitin tool’s output was treated as dispositive without educator-driven evaluation or a meaningful opportunity for the student to respond before sanctions were imposed,” the lawsuit reads.
The district has steadfastly declined to change the student’s grade, according to Davis’ response. He noted that California law vests “exclusive, autonomous grading authority in the classroom teacher.”
“In the absence of a showing of clerical mistake, fraud, bad faith, or incompetency, this Court must defer to the academic determination of the educator, and the grade remains final,” Davis wrote.
The lawsuit, which was filed in the Northern District of California of the U.S. District Court, alleges that the student was subjected to 14 counts of discrimination, retaliation, lack of due process and improper grading policies among other claims.
Kato is being represented by Evan Nelson, the attorney who led a lawsuit that claimed the district mishandled a sexual assault allegation against former Physical Education teacher Peter Colombo. The two parties reached a $3.25 million settlement in February.
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Lisa Moreno is a journalist who grew up in the East Bay Area. She completed her Bachelor's degree in Print and Online Journalism with a minor in Latino studies from San Francisco State University in 2024…. More by Lisa Moreno
16 Comments
Following up on last article, I can’t wait to see what kind of reasoning @Silver Linings drums up to justify this. “Given the integrity of the student, $150M seems like a reasonable sum for damages incurred for wrongful termination of his 5 paragraph essay on The Crucible…”
Following up on last article, I can’t wait to see what kind of reasoning @Silver Linings drums up to justify this. “Given the integrity of the student, $150M seems like a reasonable sum for damages incurred for wrongful termination of his 5 paragraph essay on The Crucible…”
This could not be grosser. $150 million for a C instead of a B? For a student whose father works in AI…odds seem high that he cheated. AI cheating is rampant in high school. I’m sure it’s a bummer to be the one who is caught, but the arrogance and entitlement of these parents forcing the school district to defend this lunacy. I hope the school district can ask for attorney’s fees for a frivolous lawsuit.
The parent simply needs to accept that their child didn’t do well on the retake assignment. If anything, the low grade on the retake only strengthens the case that the original paper was AI generated. Anything you write originally should be recalled well. And once you know you’re retaking a paper, you still have the opportunity to prepare for it.
College admissions is highly competitive, but cheating and then suing to cover it up is flat out wrong. A bad grade isn’t the end of the world. Not attending a top 50 school isn’t the end of world. Also, transferring from community college is a viable option these days.
Wow. This is so ridiculous ! How do parents feel entitled to undermine the teacher’s judgement to inflate their child’s grade? How demoralizing for the teacher ! Well, If the parent loses in court they would likely show up at the board meeting and there are enough board members who will undermine the staff and give the kid the inflated grade. Case in point, the board overriding the decisions by the high schools to not offer MVC on campus!
There is a simple way to lessen the influence of the use of AI in student essays- get computers and phones out of the classroom during testing and go back to Blue Books. It is very important to teach how to research and compose a paper, but if you significantly reduce the weight of at-home essays versus those taken in class, you will lessen the influence of AI.
Personally, I think this is not a reason to file a 150 dollar lawsuit with the
school system! Schools are here to TEACH the students how to learn. If AI does all the work, the kids are not preparing for the future. This student’s father is
not helping his child learn the basics of writing in English. Getting a D in the make-up test indicates that the kid used AI. Grades are not everything! My son did horribly at Paly, and after Junior College, UCSC, and many years perfecting his natural skills in Film and photography, he ended up with a PhD at Harvard. He got almost perfect scores on his GRE test. Harvard looks at what a kid does, not always the grades.
… and you wonder why there is grade inflation and meaningless promotion of students. Next time, read the book and write an essay kid. Dad, use it as a learning experience. My kids did not get perfect grades in highschool or college. But, they didn’t get into Stanford or MIT, went to places like North Eastern instead where they got A, B and B- averages respectively. I told them not to worry about grades, but worry about impressing them on internships. All did glowing internships, all are adults, all employed — the B- student got an AI job at of your lusted after Big Tech companies. Go figure.
This lawsuit is dishonorable.
dishonorable:
Dishonorable describes conduct or a character that lacks integrity, brings shame, or violates moral and ethical standards. It indicates that an action or person is disgraceful, unprincipled, or unworthy of respect.
By the time this lawsuit makes it through the courts, kid will probably have already graduated from college. I suspect father is smart enough to realize this and filed lawsuit to bully/scare teacher to roll over and issue a higher grade. The fact they are asking for an unrealistic $150 million seems to support this. I’m glad that the district is holding their ground.
At least the previous article identified the teacher, who has a history of complaints. Of course PAEA protects its own, leaving PAUSD dealing with the mess of being unable to remove a poor educator.
PAEAs job is to protect teachers, so… not sure why anyone should be surprised that they do their job. The important fact is this story is that PAUSD is defending the teacher. If you know anything about how the district works, they have no problem throwing teachers under the bus. They must feel pretty strong that Ms Bartlett is in the right to support her in the face of a $150 millions seems lawsuit.
The teacher is totally in the right for the Palo Alto school system. This parent is trying to protect his son, which I understand, but filing a 150 million lawsuit is suspicious at best! He is the CEO of an AI company. Is this lawsuit about the use of AI in schools or his son’s college prospects? His son might suffer more from this lawsuit!
This dad’s entitlement is astounding. Not only does he think his kid should be able to cheat, but he has no qualms about this lawsuit commandeering the district’s financial resources and the teacher’s attention, time, and energy away from all the kids who actually do their own work and don’t cheat. Disgusting.
Takashi Kato is wasting $10,000s of district money on a frivolous lawsuit. Plus the time spent by teachers and district administrators on the case. All of this just to push his son’s grade to a B. That time and money could have gone to improving math and reading for 100s of struggling kids across the district.
And I love that the city is fighting this otherwise we’ll have a flood of selfish parents like Takashi Kato destroying our school system. Well done PAUSD.
This guy has just dinged his son’s chance of getting into college. No college wants a kid with a parent like this as they will be suing every time their child doesn’t get an A grade. And this story is all over the internet – Kato from PALY will be toxic on admissions.
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