UPDATE: Darien was apprehended Thursday morning as he attempted to board a flight to Houston, Texas, at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport with a gun in his possession, BCPD Chief Robert McCullough announced at an afternoon news conference.
Darien was stopped during a security check "due to the method in which his declared firearm was packaged," McCullough said. That's when officers with the Maryland Transportation Authority noticed the warrant issued for his arrest. Authorities indicated they're not sure whether Darien was trying to flee. Darien was released on $5,000 bond following a hearing on Thursday.
The administrative process to discipline Darien is underway "up to, and including, the recommendation for termination," Rogers said. The other Pikesville HS employees named in the charging documents, such as Ravenell, are under investigation as well.
Eiswert "absolutely" remains employed at BCPS. For now, interim administrators will serve out the remainder of the school year.
Darien was apprehended Thursday morning as he attempted to board a flight to Houston at BWI Airport with a gun in his possession.
— Mia Cathell (@MiaCathell) April 26, 2024
He was stopped during a security check "due to the method in which his declared firearm was packaged." That's when officers with the Maryland… https://t.co/FaUYf64XvV pic.twitter.com/nhRSM8oEic
A black ex-employee allegedly used artificial intelligence to frame the white principal of a Baltimore-area high school as a racist and an antisemite, resulting in relentless threats, harassment, and the principal temporarily being removed from the school.
Dazhon "DJ" Darien is accused of impersonating Pikesville High School principal Eric Eiswert using AI-generated audio to mimic his voice and make racist, antisemitic statements on a simulated recording that was, then, widely circulated across social media.
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"You know, I seriously don't understand why I have to constantly put up with these dumbasses here every day," a male voice, purportedly Eiswert's, says in the 45-second tape. The speaker goes on to gripe about "ungrateful black kids who can't test their way out of a paper bag" and how hard it is to make sure that these students meet their grade-level academic expectations.
Baltimore County Public Schools is investigating the principal at Pikesville High for alleged derogatory remarks about students and staff
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) January 17, 2024
A voice believed to be the principal can be heard ranting about Black students and Jewish families https://t.co/Nuxkgxwrte pic.twitter.com/Iv2yJvps6v
"And if I have to get one more complaint from one more Jew in this community, I'm going to join the other side," the voice adds.
At one point, the speaker mentions Darien by his nickname, DJ, as an example of staff who "should never have been hired."
"And don't let me get started on DJ! I'm going to drag his black ass out of here one way or another," the voice shouts.
In January, the clip was posted to a popular Instagram account covering crime in the community, prompting a Baltimore County Public Schools and Baltimore County Police investigation. Eiswert has not been working in the school since the probe's launch.
Three teachers reportedly received the recording the night before it went viral. One of them said she had received an anonymous email containing the MP3 file around 10 p.m. on January 16, about half an hour prior to the video's posting, as well as a call from Darien and Shaena "Shae" Ravenell telling her to check her inbox. Ravenell told police that she subsequently forwarded the email to members of the media, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and a Pikesville HS student "who she knew would rapidly spread the message around various social media outlets and throughout the school."
Ravenell, a health sciences teacher, who was also named in the audio, did not immediately mention receiving it from Darien, the school's former athletic director, until being confronted about his apparent involvement. Ravenell has not been criminally charged.
Darien had allegedly accessed the school's network on multiple occasions to search for OpenAI tools and use Large Language Models, which are AI systems capable of generating human language that pull vast amounts of data from various sources on the Internet and produce "conversational" results. Darien was also connected to an email account that had distributed the audio file.
Detectives had subpoenaed documents from Google, AT&T, and T-Mobile, leading to an IP address registered to Darien’s grandmother and a recovery cellphone number associated with Darien's Google account. An FBI forensic analyst was also consulted, who found "traces of AI-generated content with human editing after the fact," such as background noise for realism.
Experts in detecting deepfakes and simulations told The Baltimore Banner that there was overwhelming evidence pointing towards the clip being an AI creation: e.g. its flat tone, clean background sounds, and lack of consistent breaths or pauses.
Eiswert initially suspected Darien was responsible for the recording's creation and release, retaliating because of a grievance over Darien's contract not being renewed. Darien was under fire for theft as the subject of an internal investigation initiated by Eiswert into the mishandling of school funds. Darien had authorized a nearly $2,000 payment to the school's JV basketball coach, who happened to be his roommate, under false pretenses, the school administration said. Eiswert determined that Darien had submitted the unauthorized payment, plus an additional $4,400, to the school's payroll system, bypassing proper procedures.
Darien was arrested Thursday and charged with disrupting school activities. Per prosecutors, Darien additionally faces charges of stalking, theft, and retaliating against a witness related to the illicit payments he allegedly sent to the school's athletics coach.
"The audio clip [...] had profound repercussions," reads the 17-page charging documents, according to The Baltimore Banner. The recording's circulation led to Eiswert's temporary removal from the school, triggered "a wave of hate-filled messages," sparked numerous calls to the school, and caused "significant disruption" of PHS operations. The school's front desk staff was "inundated" with phone calls from concerned parents and "disparaging" remarks toward school staff and administrators.
Staff did not feel safe, school leadership said, and officers had to be stationed at the school to address the safety concerns.
The flood of calls also prevented staff from fielding phone calls and interrupted other school-related functions.
Eiswert needed police presence outside of his home because he and his family had been harassed and threatened as a result of the alleged race hoax.
— Mia Cathell (@MiaCathell) April 25, 2024
Some, believing that Eiswert was caught on an undercover recording making racist remarks behind closed doors, called for him to be… pic.twitter.com/LhUSlK5t97
Questions about the audio's authenticity quickly arose. Some believed that Eiswert was caught on an undercover recording making racist remarks behind closed doors and said he "should be fired immediately" with his Maryland administrator license "permanently revoked" while others, suspecting that the audio was manufactured, came to the defense of Eiswert's character.
Eiswert denied that he said those statements, saying the clip was created to damage his career and reputation. "[T]hese thoughts are not what I believe in as both an educator and a person," Eiswert said in a statement shared with The Baltimore Banner.
Billy Burke, head of the Council of Administrative & Supervisory Employees (CASE), which is the union representing Eiswert, was the only official to suggest that the audio was fake. At a January school board meeting, the union leader said Eiswert needed police presence at his home because he and his family have been harassed and threatened as a result of the alleged race hoax.
Meanwhile, in a message to the community, BCPS superintendent Myriam Rogers had called the comments in question "deeply disturbing," "highly offensive," and "inappropriate," declaring that they "do not reflect the core values of our school system."
Darien and Ravenell have submitted their resignations, dated June 30, according to an April 16 school board document.
Both have since locked down their Facebook accounts, with Darien changing his screen name to "Leslie," his middle name.
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