Concord kindergarten teacher alleges principal used AI to fire her

A Concord kindergarten teacher is seeking to reverse her 2025 dismissal, alleging the principal of Thoreau Elementary School used artificial intelligence to write the report which called for her to be fired. 

Christine Apollos, who taught at the school for over 20 years, used AI detection software GPTZero to support her allegation during the arbitration process. 

The Concord-Carlisle School District and Principal Justin Sparks, however, contend only an AI grammar checker was used and that the dismissal followed a series of underwhelming performance reviews.

The arbitrator upheld the dismissal in an Aug. 27 decision and put “no weight” on the AI allegation. But, the way the arbitrator allegedly reached that conclusion — using two AI platforms to research the validity of GPTZero without notifying either party — could be a violation of their neutrality, the complaint says.

In a Sept. 28 lawsuit pitting various AI platforms and their reliability against one another, Apollos is asking Suffolk County Superior Court to vacate the arbitrator’s decision and order a new hearing before a different arbitrator. 

Representation for Apollos declined to comment on the case. A spokesperson for the Concord-Carlisle Regional School District told Boston.com the district does not comment on pending litigation. 

“Mr. Sparks failed to base his ratings on his own professional judgment in the Summative Evaluation; instead he relied on the judgment of artificial intelligence,” according to Apollos’ argument in court documents. 

The arbitration hearings

Apollos and the school district squared off in several arbitration hearings between January and May. Massachusetts statutes allow teachers with professional teaching status to pursue an arbitration process to review their dismissal.

Teachers receive professional teaching status after successfully completing a probationary period — typically after three years of service in a school district, according to Massachusetts statutes. 

Teachers with professional teaching status can only be fired for “inefficiency, incompetency, incapacity, conduct unbecoming a teacher, insubordination or failure on the part of the teacher to satisfy teacher performance standards,” according to Mass. statutes.

During the arbitration hearings, the school district argued a series of “unsatisfactory” and “needs improvement” evaluations for Apollos were grounds for termination, according to the arbitrator’s decision found in court records.

Sparks and at least two other administrators performed the evaluations of the kindergarten teacher from 2023 to 2025, court records show.

Meanwhile, Apollos argued she received “acceptable” performance evaluations until Sparks became principal in 2022. She alleges the decline in her reviews was a result of “age bias,” according to the complaint.

Further, she alleges that Sparks used AI to produce the summative evaluation calling for her dismissal. The document, she alleges, is rife with references to portions of the teacher evaluation rubric which do not exist.

Apollos placed reports by Sparks into GPTZero, which determined several were “likely written by AI,” according to the arbitrator’s decision.

Apollos said in the lawsuit that determining whether Sparks used AI is important to discern if his testimony is “credible” and if he “exercised his own professional judgment” in deciding to dismiss her. 

An AI controversy 

The arbitrator’s decision, which was released Aug. 27, ruled the school district followed proper procedure and did not discriminate against Apollos because of her age.

The decision also gave “no weight” to the allegation that Sparks used AI. The arbitrator ruled the errors in the evaluation are “troubling,” but not troubling enough to ignore Apollos’ history of poor performance reviews. 

But the method the arbitrator used to reach that conclusion is the subject of controversy in the lawsuit.

In order to research whether GPTZero’s findings could be trusted, the arbitrator asked GPT-5.4 and Claude Opus 5 to describe GPTZero. The output from the queries deemed that GPTZero isn’t always accurate, according to the decision.

But the arbitrator allegedly conducted this investigation without notifying either party. Apollos therefore did not have the opportunity to “rebut” the findings, according to the lawsuit.

Apollos also alleges the studies cited by the two AI platforms were outdated, a false comparison, and produced by competitors “with an interest in undermining GPTZero’s reputation,” according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit

Apollos charges in the lawsuit that the arbitrator committed misconduct by doing their own investigation “outside of the hearing record.”

The lawsuit also charges that the arbitrator forced Apollos to “prove” that the school district committed age discrimination. In doing so, the arbitrator placed the burden of proof on Apollos. 

This would be a violation of Mass. statutes that say the burden falls on the school district to prove its allegations, according to the lawsuit.

Service of the lawsuit is required by Dec. 28, and the school district will have until Jan. 26 to file its answer, according to court records.