A Maryland high school athletic director was arrested on Thursday under suspicion of using artificial intelligence (AI) to frame his principal as a racist. He was apprehended at an airport while checking regulations for flying with a firearm.
Pikesville High School (PHS) Principal Eric Eiswert was removed from his position and inundated with harassment after an audio recording of him supposedly going on a rant about black and Jewish people in the school system made rounds on social media in January, the Baltimore Banner reported.
The voice in the audio referred to “ungrateful black kids who can’t test their way out of a paper bag” and said, “If I have to get one more complaint from one more Jew in this community, I’m going to join the other side.”
The recording also named multiple faculty members who should be fired, including athletic director Dazhon “D.J.” Darien, whom the voice threatened to “drag his black ass out of here one way or another.”
While Eiswert denied that he made those offensive remarks, many students, community members, and even PHS staff believed he was the voice behind the recording.
After the audio garnered attention online, both Baltimore County Public Schools and Baltimore County Police launched investigations into the matter.
Charging documents obtained by the local outlet allege that Darien searched for AI tools that could falsify vocal recordings on the school’s network in December and January, and he was the owner of an email account that distributed the clip.
According to investigators, three teachers were in possession of the clip the night before it went viral; the first was Darien, the second was Shaena Ravenell, and the third was someone who said that Darien and Ravenell sent it to her.
Ravenell told police that she sent the clip to media outlets, the NAACP, and a student “who she knew would rapidly spread the message around various social media outlets and throughout the school.”
“She did not mention receiving it from Darien until confronted about his involvement,” reported the Banner, which noted that she has not been charged with a crime for her connection to the case.
“The audio clip … had profound repercussions,” police wrote in charging documents for Darien. “It not only led to Eiswert’s temporary removal from the school but also triggered a wave of hate-filled messages on social media and numerous calls to the school. The recording also caused significant disruptions for the PHS staff and students.”
Investigators believe that Darien used AI to fabricate the comments in order to retaliate against Eiswert for initiating an investigation into improper payments he allegedly made to another school coach, who was also his roommate.
That investigation began in December, with police saying that Darien sent $1,916 from the school’s payroll system to the junior varsity basketball coach under the pretense that he was also an assistant girls’ soccer coach — he was not.
A warrant was issued for Darien’s arrest on Wednesday, and he was apprehended the next morning at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport with tickets to fly to Houston, Texas.
The arrest was made after Darien was stopped by airport security and questioned whether he had properly packed his gun for travel, Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough told reporters.
When security ran his name through police records, the warrant popped up, and he was taken into custody.
Darien has since been charged with disrupting school activities, theft, retaliation against a witness, and stalking.
“We now have conclusive evidence that the recording was not authentic,” McCullough said during the Thursday press briefing, according to NBC News. “It’s been determined the recording was generated through the use of artificial intelligence technology.”
The chief “stopped short” of saying whether Darien was attempting to flee, the outlet noted.
“As you could imagine, this has been a very difficult time for [the] Pikesville High School community, principal Eiswert, and his family,” Baltimore County Public Schools Superintendent Myriam Rogers said.
Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Eiswert has not been working at PHS since the investigation began and is not returning for the remainder of the school year. Rogers said the district will work with him to determine his duties for next semester.
She added that district officials have recommended that Darien be terminated, but both he and Ravenell had already submitted their resignations as of April 16, according to the Banner. The end date for both of their jobs within the school system is set for June 30.
When the audio was presumed to be real in January, Rogers called it “disturbing” and said it contained “highly offensive and inappropriate statements about African American students, Pikesville High School staff, and Pikesville’s Jewish community.”
Billy Burke, head of the Council of Administrative & Supervisory Employees (CASE) — the local union Eiswert belongs to — was the only official to point out that the clip may have been AI-generated.
During a January school board meeting, Burke voiced his disappointment that others had automatically assumed that Eiswert made those remarks and said that the principal had police guarding his home due to the harassment and threats his family had received.
Burke said that he had also received harassing emails at the time.
“I continue to be concerned about the damage these actions have caused for Principal Eiswert, his family, the students and staff of Pikesville High School, and the black and Jewish community members,” the union head said in a statement on Thursday. “I hope there is deliberate action to heal the trauma caused by the fake audio and that all people can feel restored.”
Police said that PHS had to increase police presence on campus after school faculty brought forth safety concerns due to the backlash from the clip.
Believing that the audio was authentic, police stated that teachers “expressed fears that recording devices could have been planted in various places in the school.”
“The recording’s release deeply affected the trust between teachers and the administration,” police said. “One individual shared that they fielded sensitive phone calls in their vehicle in the parking lot instead of speaking in school.”
Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger said this is the first case involving an AI-faked audio recording that his district has prosecuted and one of the first of its kind in the entire nation.
”It seems very clear to me that we may need to make our way down to Annapolis in the legislature next year to make some adaptions to bring the law up to date with the technology that was being used,” he said.
Johnny Olszewski Jr., a Baltimore County executive, called the recent advancements in AI technology “deeply concerning” and stated people should stay vigilant in investigating those who use it for malice.
He added that there should be greater investments made into methods to identify faked audio recordings.
Cindy Sexton, president of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County, added that the National Education Association is working on addressing the AI concerns, but something more should be done.
“We have to do something as a society, but ‘what is that something’ is of course the big question,” Sexton said
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