Nashville teacher fired after allegedly creating AI photos, videos of students without permission - WSMV

What This Story Is About

- A Metro Nashville Public Schools teacher was terminated after allegedly taking photos and videos of students and altering them with artificial intelligence without their permission.

Why It Matters

- The teacher’s conduct with the photo violates Metro Nashville Public Schools policy and he was also found to be having “inappropriate communication” with students, namely involving conversations about sexual intercourse.

What Happens Next

- The Department of Children Services currently has two investigations into his conduct.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - A Metro Nashville Public Schools teacher was terminated after allegedly taking photos and videos of students and running them through an AI program to alter the images, without their permission.

According to the letter sent by MNPS to the Big Picture High School teacher, Mario Mumphrey, he was also inserting himself in student conversations and making comments like “students don’t want to be in relationships, they just want to have sex.” At another point, he also allegedly told a male student, “You don’t like her, you just want to have sex with her,” in a conversation regarding the student’s girlfriend.

Students reported him for months

MNPS reported multiple instances of Mumphrey taking photos of students that date back to October 2025.

According to MNPS’s letter to Mumphrey, from about October 2025 to early May 2026, he created AI videos of different students. Those alleged incidents include:

- Leading up to May 5, 2026, took a picture of a student without his consent during Personalized Learning Time and using AI to turn it into cartoons or teddy bear style photos

- February or March 2026, took a photo of a student and turned it into a video of him dancing “weird.” He persistently did this, ultimately making the student “feel awkward and uncomfortable.”

- Took pictures of male students and used AI to create videos of them “doing a ‘gay or zesty dance,’” ultimately causing one of the students wanting to distance himself

- From October 2025 to May 2026, created AI videos of different students doing TikTok dances that a student felt were inappropriate due to the way the animations were made to make students “move their hips in weird ways”

- Texted students after school hours to find out their whereabouts

- In May 2026, created a video of a student “doing a ‘feminine dance.’” The student also said the teacher would text him after school and “be very pushy and adamant that he respond quickly to your texts, and that you would get angry if he didn’t respond quickly enough.” The student also said the teacher made a video of two male students “twerking,” which he then showed to the class.

- Took photos and videos of a student and, without his permission, made a “prom-posal” poster. The student also said the teacher made a video of him “doing gay dances.”

- Student said the teacher made AI videos from his photos that contained “dances that girls would do” and then sent the student those videos.

Mumphrey had previously been in trouble

Mumphrey also had previously received a three-day suspension without pay in January 2026 for “inappropriate physical conduct with a student, inappropriate communication with a student and insubordination.”

He also received a memo back in September 2023 for failing to meet deadlines and providing tutoring for a student after school in the building for compensation without approval.

In March 2024, he received another memo for “inappropriate and retaliatory communication during an Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting; failure to communicate timely and accurately with parents; ignoring parent requests for IEP meetings.”

After receiving the reports from the students about the inappropriate behavior, the principal of Big Picture High School made reports to the Metro Nashville Police Department and the Department of Children’s Services. MNPS said there are currently two investigations into his conduct.

Mumphrey received the letter from MNPS on July 7. His termination letter was included in the July 28 Board agenda packet.

Read the full letter, starting at page 107, below.

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