The Corinth School Board unanimously voted Monday to fire its superintendent for waiting months to alert law enforcement of a teacher allegedly using artificial intelligence to create inauthentic porn – commonly referred to as “deepfakes” – with images of students.
Per a report from WTVA, Corinth School District Superintendent Lee Childress was relieved of his duties in the aftermath of former Corinth Middle School teacher Wilson Jones being arrested last week and charged with production of a morphed image of child pornography and possession of morphed images of child pornography.
The local TV station reported that Childress and other school administrators learned of the alleged crimes in November and allowed Jones to “quietly” resign. The Mississippi Department of Education was not notified until late January and police were not notified until late February, which is when the investigation began and resulted in the former educator’s arrest.
When parents and community members found out about the nearly four-month gap between the school district finding out about the alleged crimes and law enforcement being alerted, outrage was voiced at a school board meeting days after Jones’ arrest with attendees calling for Childress to be fired. Tony Farese, an attorney representing seven of the eight students whose images were used without consent for the AI-generated porn, said the district not only failed to tell law enforcement but did not tell any of the parents and offered no support to the victims.
When acknowledging the firing of Childress in a statement issued after Monday’s meeting, the Corinth School District said counseling is now available for students impacted.
“The District’s greatest priority is the safety and well-being of its students. The Board of Trustees is heartbroken over the pain caused to these young victims and their families over the incident with a former teacher at Corinth Middle School. The District is providing these families and the families of any other affected children with appropriate counseling services for these students,” a portion of the statement reads, adding new policies will be implemented to prevent similar situations from happening in the future.
It’s unclear if Childress or others within the school district will face legal ramifications as Mississippi law requires suspected abuse in an educational environment to be reported immediately. As for Jones, the 30-year-old could spend decades in prison if found guilty.
