At the beginning of Jan. 2026, a petition was created by Students Against AI, an organization of students at Buena High school, whose main goal is to urge Buena High school to stop their problematic usage of generative AI. The petition has since gathered over 150 signatures, and has brought up a heavily debated topic for both staff and students on campus. 

In the last two years, Buena’s yearbook class has used AI to create the yearbook covers, which was part of the inspiration for this petition, according to one of the organizers, sophomore Olivia Stinnett.

“I’d look at the yearbook, and I’d see the AI [generated images, which] made me disappointed because there are so many talented artists, graphic designers and people who would be willing to [design covers], but they just resort to a quicker, more lazy solution instead of actual heartfelt work,” Stinnett said.

Yearbook teacher Emmet Cullen shared that three years ago, the school attempted to hold a competition for the cover art, but that it wasn’t able to happen after all as he was informed he could not give students money as a prize for the competition. Cullen explained that the use of AI or other tools such as Canva was not the first resort, but it came about organically due to the circumstances and rules that were in place. 

“When we looked at our artistic skill in class and nobody in class could design a cover, we found out we [could resort] to Canva, so nowhere along the line did we say [that] AI [was] the best thing to use, [and that we should] all use that…Nobody told the students they had to use AI for the cover… But the yearbook is a book that people buy, so it needs to be the best… we can make it,” Cullen said. 

This decision had an impact on art students, such as senior Olivia McGowan, who stated she believes generative AI steals work from other artists without credit and is essentially plagiarism. McGowan also mentioned that there are ways to go about holding competitions without using money as an incentive, and that the art department would have no issue putting together something of the sort. 

“There are so many people willing [to participate in] a contest to submit art to be picked for the yearbook. I think that there are so many students in Art 1, 2, or AP art [who] would, even students that aren’t in art classes. If [it was made] school-wide, they would love the opportunity because [it would be their] art on the cover, something that so many people [will buy],” McGowan said.

In essence, this petition has prompted people to reflect on their use of AI, especially when it comes to generating art. And while this petition shares an important perspective in the matter, there are multiple perspectives to hear from and consider, such as those of the yearbook teacher and other staff.