A New York District Just Paused America's First Classroom Humanoid — Hours After the State Education Commissioner Wrote In
About This Episode
The Salamanca City Central School District, on the Seneca Nation reservation in upstate New York, paused its $57,590 contract with Realbotix on July 24 — hours after State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa wrote to the superintendent that the department remained concerned about the effect of a humanoid robot in a high school classroom. Teachers, parents and the state teachers union had objected after New York Focus revealed the contract on July 14; the school board had approved the purchase in June. The robot, named Sally, would have been the first humanoid teaching assistant deployed in a US school district, paired with an AI tutor called Optio giving students round-the-clock homework help at home.
Our Take
The first humanoid teaching assistant in an American classroom was paused ten days after New York Focus revealed the contract — not by a new law, but by local teachers and parents forcing the plan into public view, and then a State Education Department letter leaning on the one signature the district still needed: a student data privacy agreement.
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