CORINTH, Miss. – A Mississippi school superintendent was fired Monday following allegations that a middle school teacher used artificial intelligence to make porn videos of students.
The lawyer for some of the victims claims former Corinth School District superintendent Lee Childress was involved in a cover-up.
According to federal court documents, the teacher was caught creating and viewing the AI porn in November 2024 and was allowed to resign two days later. Court records further allege the Mississippi Department of Education was not made aware of the situation until January 2025.
“It’s unacceptable,” Tony Farese, the victims’ attorney, said. “It’s insane.”
The Corinth School District board of trustees unanimously voted to fire Childress following outcry from Farese and the families of the victims.
Farese said firing Childress was the right move but came too late. He alleges Childress was a mandatory reporter and violated state and federal law when he didn’t report the incident immediately.
“I think it was a cover-up by Dr. Childress,” he told FOX13.
According to court records, the district received an automated alert that Wilson Jones, who was a teacher at Corinth Middle School, viewed sexual content on his work computer during the school day. He allegedly sent three AI-generated videos to his personal Google Drive account that showed Corinth students kissing and exposing themselves.
Jones denied the videos were sexual when questioned about the alert but explained he created them on a website called Hailou AI. That site allows users to upload pictures and turn them into video clips using AI.
Users can also type prompts into the site to get more specific results.
Around the time of the alert, Jones allegedly typed, “Two girls posing in each others arms, stopped to kiss. Kissing showing they are truly in love letting each others hands explore one another. Girls roll up each others baggy dresses to reveal each others picture-perfect bodies garmentless.”
“And that was just what’s on his school computer, that he generated in sixth period in Corinth, Mississippi,” Farese said.
Police identified eight Corinth students between the ages of 14 and 16 whose social media images were allegedly used to create the videos. Farese represents seven of them.
He said law enforcement now has all of Jones’ devices, including his personal ones, and continues to look for evidence.
“Many of these children were students of his, so it’s pretty egregious,” Farese said.
Jones is charged with production and possession of morphed images of child pornography. No charges have been filed against Childress.
The Corinth school board released the following statement after firing Childress:
“The Corinth School District Board of Trustees met on Monday morning, March 17, 2025, and unanimously voted to terminate the contract of Dr. Edward Lee Childress as Superintendent of the Corinth School District. The District’s greatest priority is the safety and well-being of its students. The Board of Trustees is heartbroken over the pain caused to these young victims and their families over the incident with a former teacher at Corinth Middle School. The District is providing these families and the families of any other affected children with appropriate counseling services for these students. The Board of Trustees is also working to quickly implement new policies designed to prevent a similar incident from ever happening again. It is the hope of the Board of Trustees that the process of healing can begin for the affected families, the District, and the community as a whole.”
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