A Robot Named Sally: A School Pilot and a Pause

The Salamanca City Central School District, located on Seneca Nation territory in western New York, had planned a fall pilot that would place a humanoid robot named Sally into upper‑grade AI and robotics classes. Sally is an M‑Series unit built by Realbotix with silicone skin, long brown hair, expressive facial features and upper‑body motion while remaining seated; the rollout also includes an AI platform called Optio that can extend tutoring outside class with personalized login codes and multilingual support. The district agreed to pay $57,590 for the robot and software, a package designed to provide prompt‑based help and curriculum‑aligned exercises rather than to replace certified teachers.

Public questions about student privacy, classroom safety, and the robot’s realistic appearance led the district to pause the deployment on July 24, 2026 while it negotiates enhanced data‑sharing terms with the state and holds community discussions. The state education department has said it is concerned about the effect a humanoid device may have in a high school classroom, and many local teachers and parents expressed unease about close interactions between students and a life‑like machine. Although Realbotix and district leaders emphasize guardrails such as offline curriculum materials and restricted functions, those reassurances will be evaluated during technical reviews.

The pause creates space for more detailed oversight and for educators to study how Optio’s homework support and the robot’s in‑class prompts can be integrated responsibly; if privacy agreements and community feedback are resolved, the district says it will resume planning with clearer rules and public reporting. Meanwhile, the episode has sparked wider debate about how embodied AI should be used in schools and what safeguards must accompany new classroom technologies.