Parents sue Google, alleging Gemini helped daughter plan suicide on school Chromebook 

The parents of a North Carolina girl have sued Google, alleging its Gemini artificial intelligence tool helped their daughter plan suicide on a computer her school required her to use.

Her parents intervened, and the girl survived. The lawsuit says Google allowed her to use the chatbot without parental consent and did not let them review the full chat records.

The parents filed the lawsuit on their daughter’s behalf. She was 13 when the alleged incidents began.

Her school blocked Gemini and ChatGPT on the Chromebook, but Emma accessed Gemini in AI Mode, a chat feature within Google Search, AFP reported.

The complaint says her school required her to use the Chromebook for classwork. Neither Google nor the school told her parents she could access Gemini.

“Emma’s parents were not asked for their consent for Emma to use the Chromebook or Gemini, and they did not consent,” the lawsuit says.

The family says Emma had straight A’s, no history of mental illness and participated in church activities.

Her use of Gemini increased in December 2025. By March, she was sending thousands of messages each month, according to her lawyers at the EdTech Law Center.

The lawsuit says the chatbot led Emma to believe she had serious mental disorders. It also alleges Gemini helped her plan her funeral and hide her mental distress from her parents.

Her parents learned about the problem March 17, when the school’s monitoring software flagged a document about her funeral. A former school counselor continued receiving those alerts because the school had improperly configured the software. The counselor had left the school nine months earlier.

Emma’s mother was away from home, but she opened her daughter’s account and found her writing a suicide note. Her father then intervened.

Her parents took her for emergency psychiatric care.

“What happened to Emma is an outrage,” Julie Liddell, the law center’s founder, said in a statement.

“But Emma is not a guinea pig. She’s someone’s little girl,” she added.

The family also alleges Google refused to provide the chat records because Emma had a student account, even though the company provides such records to users with personal accounts.

The complaint says these limitations prevent parents from seeing Gemini’s specific replies. Its account of the exchanges relies in part on browser logs provided by the school.

Google says its AI search tools include safeguards against self-harm.

“We are reviewing the claims in the lawsuit and we take this very seriously,” Google spokesman José Castañeda said in a statement.

Last week, Google announced it would turn off Gemini and Search by default for K-12 student accounts. School leaders would have to enable them. Google said it would share more details before the changes take effect.

Schools that use Google Search must accept its built-in AI features, Reuters reported.

“Schools should turn search off and keep it off,” family lawyer Andrew Liddell told AFP.

He wants schools to keep the feature turned off until Google removes AI Mode or puts sufficient protections in place for students who use it.

The family filed the lawsuit in California state court last week. Google moved it to federal court two days later. The complaint seeks damages and court orders against Google and Alphabet, its parent company.

Heartlander News previously covered a separate lawsuit involving a California teen who died by suicide. His family alleged ChatGPT helped him plan his death and hide those plans from them.

Other lawsuits have been filed against AI companies. Last month, West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey sued OpenAI, alleging the company misled families about ChatGPT’s safety and failed to protect children.

“We must do all we can to protect kids,” McCuskey said in a statement.

(Image credit: Photo by Content Pixie on Unsplash; Gemini logo added)