SP: Congresswoman files complaint with Public Prosecutor's Office against the use of AI to monitor students in state schools.
Professor Bebel denounces the initiative of the Tarcísio government to implement a monitoring system with cameras and algorithms in classrooms of the São Paulo state school system.
247 - State Representative Professor Bebel (PT-SP), who is also the second president of APEOESP (Union of Teachers of the Official Education System of the State of São Paulo), filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor's Office of São Paulo (MP-SP) against the use of artificial intelligence to monitor students in state schools.
The target of the complaint is the Intelligent Development Self-Assessment System (SADI), developed by the Anexo Technology Institute (GO) and already tested in 11 units of the São Paulo public school system. The resource uses three cameras per classroom to capture facial expressions, movements, and interactions of students and teachers. The data is processed by algorithms that classify students into categories such as "attentive" (green) or "inattentive" (orange).
For Bebel, the measure represents a risk to the school community: “It is unacceptable to transform the school into a space of permanent surveillance, exposing students and teachers to mechanisms of control and harassment. We will activate all political and legal channels to stop this further attack on public education and the rights of the school community,” she declared.
Data collection without legal basis.
According to the complaint, the implementation occurred without specific legal backing and with weaknesses in the consent process. Parents of students reported receiving generic contracts authorizing the use of their children's images, without clear mention of SADI or the responsible institute.
There are also reports that the system's results are being used to pressure teachers through class "engagement" indices. One teacher, for example, was reportedly reprimanded by the administration for maintaining low engagement rates, according to published information. in a report by Davi Nogueira in Diário do Centro do Mundo (DCM)However, the way the system obtains these indices is unclear. In other words, there is no publicly available data to date detailing how the metrics evaluated by the system, such as "engagement rate," "classroom occupancy rate," "interaction with the teacher," "cell phone usage"—among others—are processed by the artificial intelligence algorithm.
Experts in education and digital law have also raised concerns. Professor Daniel Cara, from the Faculty of Education at USP (University of São Paulo), argues that the initiative violates the General Data Protection Law (LGPD) and the Statute of Children and Adolescents (ECA). "This artificial intelligence transforms the educational environment into a laboratory for technological experiments that use children from public schools as guinea pigs," he told DCM.
Criticisms of the "platformization" of education
APEOESP sees the measure as part of the "platformization" policy of public education in São Paulo, under the administration of Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos) and Secretary of Education Renato Feder. According to the union, this strategy is being used as a mechanism of control, surveillance, and harassment, to the detriment of pedagogical quality.
“The platformization of public education, used as a tool for control and the emptying of teaching, is a serious threat. Students, teachers, staff, and parents are already mobilizing, and our commitment is to stand by them to prevent the school from becoming a space of surveillance and oppression,” said Bebel.
In the formal complaint, the congresswoman requests that the Public Prosecutor's Office of São Paulo investigate the case and adopt measures to prevent the implementation of SADI throughout the state's school system. The objective is to guarantee the protection of the privacy of children and adolescents, as well as the pedagogical autonomy of teachers.
The São Paulo Department of Education acknowledges that SADI is in the testing phase, but claims it is a "pilot, laboratory project" with the consent of schools and some parents. As of yet, there is no formal contract with the company responsible, according to DCM.
