Portage school board joins litigation against social media companies
The Portage Township School Board joined a class-action suit against social media companies aimed at addressing mental health issues in schools.
“It’s really a no-brainer because it’s free money,” attorney Ken Elwood told the board during a Monday meeting.
Any proceeds from the lawsuit would be used the same way money from a lawsuit against vape manufacturer Juul is being used, Superintendent Amanda Alaniz said. The Juul suit proceeds are being spent on smoking cessation and prevention programs.
The social media lawsuit’s proceeds would be used to educate children and families on potentially harmful effects of social media use, she said.
Wagstaff & Cartmell, the same law firm that led the Juul lawsuit, is lead counsel for the social media litigation, Elwood said. The Kansas City-based firm is working with Atlanta’s Beasley Allen and Kansas City’s Goza and Honnold.
The firm is working on a contingency basis, meaning school districts don’t have to pay fees up front. Instead, it would keep one-third of any settlement.
Public nuisance claims like the litigation against social media companies have been used repeatedly for causes like the opioid crisis and the tobacco litigation in the 1990s.
“Social media companies have caused a youth mental health crisis that has significantly impacted schools,” a Wagstaff & Cartmell handout said. The litigation aims to hold social media companies accountable.
“Our investigation has revealed that social media companies engaged in deceptive practices by designing and promoting their products to attract and addict children,” the company said. “Everything about these products — from inadequate age verification measures, insufficient parental controls, endless scrolling, constant notifications and targeted algorithms — have been designed to addict teen and adolescent users.”
The law firm singled out Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube as examples.
The school district will be required to complete a written fact sheet providing documentation of basic information about the district’s claim.
The litigation is filed in the Northern District of California because that’s where several of the social media companies are based, Wagstaff & Cartmell said.