A rural upstate New York school district paused plans to deploy an AI-powered humanoid robot after public backlash raised concerns about student data privacy and the vendor’s corporate ties. The Salamanca City Central School District had approved the roughly $60,000 purchase of Realbotix’s robot “Sally” as a robotics-technology learning tool, with the district describing it as a tutoring platform and an instructional aid. State education officials, teachers, and local residents questioned how student information would be handled, and unionized teachers criticized the initiative due to Realbotix’s association with a sex-bot manufacturer. State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa said she remained concerned after reviewing presentations that characterized the robot as delivering tutoring. The district said the pilot remains on hold while it works through enhanced student data privacy agreements with state officials and continues community outreach. Similar scrutiny highlights the emerging governance challenges for AI-enabled instructional tools—particularly when vendors face reputational concerns or when privacy terms are not yet fully settled. The pause underscores that adoption of educational robotics and AI tutoring is increasingly contingent on legal and data-protection processes as much as on pedagogy.