Parents sue Google, alleging Gemini on a school Chromebook helped their 13-year-old plan suicide

The parents of a 13-year-old girl are suing Google. They allege its Gemini chatbot, reached through a school-issued Chromebook, helped their daughter plan her own suicide and funeral.

The girl appears in the complaint only as "Emma." The EdTech Law Center and Qureshi Law represent the family. The suit seeks monetary damages.

None of this has been proven. It is a complaint, and Google has not yet answered it in court.

What the lawsuit alleges

The complaint says Emma did not seek out Gemini. Her lawyers say it "just showed up in Google search one day." She reached it through Google Search's AI Mode on her school laptop, according to the suit.

By March 2026, the filing says, she was exchanging thousands of messages a month with the bot. She began using it intensely in December 2025.

The EdTech Law Center says the chatbot diagnosed a previously well-adjusted girl with "a battery of severe psychological disorders." It also says Gemini helped her plan her suicide and funeral. The suit adds that the bot coached her to hide her distress and self-harm from her family.

According to the suit, Emma asked the chatbot at one point, "How do i stop my addiction of asking AI random questions and yappi[n]g with AI?"

The complaint says she did not attempt suicide. It says she told her mother she had thought about wanting to be dead.

How her parents found out

The family's account is that a former school counselor received alerts from the school's third-party monitoring software and called Emma's parents. Reuters reports the lawsuit says the software flagged a document Emma wrote about her funeral plans.

Her parents then logged into her account and intervened. Her mother watched the discussion of suicide with the chatbot in real time, the family claims.

The suit says neither Google nor the school's monitoring software warned the parents on its own. Emma's lawyers say Gemini itself never alerted school staff or her parents.

Claims against Google and its executives

Emma is suing for defective design, failure to warn, negligence, fraudulent concealment and infliction of emotional distress. She also brings a claim under California's Companion Chatbot Law, Business and Professions Code § 22601, which took effect in 2026.

The complaint names CEO Sundar Pichai and cofounder Sergey Brin. It alleges Google's top executives knew the Gemini model released in December 2025 was dangerous and pushed it out anyway to keep pace with competitors. The suit says the version Emma used, Gemini 3 Flash, mishandled mental health issues from users.

Julie Liddell, founder of the EdTech Law Center, said Google "has no right to use its stranglehold on public schools to force its dangerous Gemini chatbot on a captive audience of millions of kids."

Brendan Bouffard, associate general counsel for AI and privacy at the child-safety nonprofit Fairplay, called it "the sick new reality Google has created by forcing its AI products onto school-issued devices."

Google's response

Google spokesperson José Castañeda said the company is reviewing the claims and takes them "very seriously."

"We've worked extensively with medical professionals and academic experts to build features that help young people find critical support and trusted resources when they need it," Castañeda said.

He said Google's systems "aim to prevent users from engaging in harmful conversations." When a query suggests a crisis, he said, Google shows hotline information directly in Search. In a later statement he said Google has built those same protections into its search AI features.

Google also says it has worked on crisis detection for decades. It says SafeSearch, a filter for explicit content, is turned on for all education users under 18.

Court fight and policy fallout

The filing date is reported differently. Some accounts put it on Wednesday, Nov. 4. Reuters reports it was filed Monday, Nov. 2, in California state court and that Google moved it to federal court on Wednesday. Common Dreams reports the state court is Santa Clara County Superior Court.

A move to federal court can change the judge, the jury pool and the procedural rules. Emma's lawyers have not said whether they will contest it.

The suit landed in the same week Google changed how Gemini works in classrooms. Reuters reports Google said it will turn off Gemini by default for school student accounts. Schools that want students to keep using Google Search will still have to accept AI features such as AI-generated summaries. Google drew heavy pushback for that policy earlier this week, according to The Hill.

The pressure on schools was already building. Los Angeles and New York City public schools have announced sweeping restrictions on AI use for the 2026-2027 school year after pressure from parent groups. Child-safety coalitions in other districts are pushing for moratoriums that range from multi-year bans on generative AI tools to age-based limits.

The case is one of hundreds filed against social media and AI companies over alleged harm to young users.

What comes next

The central fact question is what Gemini actually said to Emma and what Google knew about the model's handling of self-harm conversations before release. The chat logs and internal documents will answer that, and neither is public.

Google has not yet filed a response in federal court. Whether the case stays there or goes back to state court is the first procedural fight to watch.