By Andrea Stevens
AFRO Staff Writer
astevens@afro.com
Civil rights and advocacy organizations are demanding accountability and reform after an artificial intelligence (AI) system at Kenwood High School misidentified a chip bag as a gun, leading to a Black student’s detainment on Oct. 20.
After football practice, 16-year-old Taki Allen was sitting in front of his school eating a small bag of Doritos chips. When he finished, he balled up the empty bag and put it in his pocket. The school’s AI detection system allegedly flagged the Doritos bag as a firearm and multiple police vehicles arrived rapidly, leading to Allen being handcuffed at gunpoint.
The Randallstown NAACP Branch and Associated Black Charities (ABC) say the incident is a symptom of broader systemic bias and leadership failure within Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS). Both organizations say the event highlights the dangers of using untested surveillance technology in schools serving communities of color.
“This is not just a malfunction of technology but a failure of leadership and humanity,” says Dr. Tekemia Dorsey, president of the Randallstown NAACP. “When a student is treated as a threat because of a flawed algorithm and officials remain silent, our children’s safety and dignity are under assault.”
In a letter to families in the school’s community, the Kenwood High School principal, Kate Smith, describes the sequence of events that led to the police response.
“I am writing to provide information on an incident that occurred last night on school property. At approximately 7 p.m., school administration received an alert that an individual on school grounds may have been in possession of a weapon,” she wrote. “The Department of School Safety and Security quickly reviewed and canceled the initial alert after confirming there was no weapon. I contacted our school resource officer (SRO) and reported the matter to him and he contacted the local precinct for additional support. Police officers responded to the school, searched the individual and quickly confirmed that they were not in possession of any weapons.”
She added that counselors would be available to support affected students and that the school’s priority remains maintaining a safe and welcoming environment. Baltimore County Police confirmed the general timeline of events, noting that the situation was safely resolved after it was determined there was no threat.
Chrissy M. Thornton, president and CEO of Associated Black Charities, says the problem extends beyond a system malfunction.
“Not enough attention was being paid to the fact that this could have ended in tragedy,” Thornton said. “It was actually the principal who had thwarted the protocols in place and her own panic and implicit bias may have led to the police response that followed.”
Thornton adds that this pattern is not new.
“This happens far too often, specifically with White women in positions of authority and leadership, where their own fragility and hysteria lead to the possible endangerment of Black men,” she says. “We are calling for a higher level of accountability for the principal because her actions could have placed this young man’s life in jeopardy.”
Omnilert, creator of the AI system for detecting firearms used in Baltimore County Public Schools, stated that it does not provide comments on procedures internal to the district.
The NAACP says the case exposes a wider national pattern of racial bias in school surveillance.
The Randallstown NAACP cites racial bias, due process violations and leadership failures within Baltimore County Public Schools for the incident. In a statement on the incident, the organization says the incident raises privacy concerns and is encouraging a “climate of over-surveillance and aggressive policing,” thus creating a “hostile educational environment, particularly for students of color who may feel criminalized simply for being present. The Randallstown NAACP is requesting an independent civil rights audit of BCPS’s AI systems, the public release of surveillance data and suspension of AI use until bias reviews are complete.
The branch also calls on district leaders to issue a public apology, disclose vendor contracts and redirect funds toward counselors and restorative programs.
A community town hall, hosted by the Randallstown NAACP, will soon be held to discuss AI surveillance, student safety and civil rights.