The Shawano School District has agreed to join a class action lawsuit against social media companies, including Meta, TikTok, ByteDance, Snap and Google after the board approved a resolution Oct. 26.
The resolution allows the district to execute a retainer agreement with the law firms of Lieff Cabraser Heimann and Bernstein; Brockstedt Mandalas Federico; Renning Lewis and Lacy, SC; Spotlight Justice, PLLC; and Medina Morgan, LLC. The agreement only requires the district to be responsible for attorney fees and costs if it recovers damages from the suit.
Shawano is one of more than 200 school districts in Wisconsin to become part of the lawsuit, according to Superintendent Kurt Krizan. There are more than 1,300 districts nationwide that are suing based on research that social media is harming younger generations by their design and engineering of their products that promote excessive use by children.
The U.S. Surgeon General’s Office issued an advisory in 2023 about how 40% of children ages 8-12 use social media, even though most platforms have a minimum age of 13. Some of the side effects quoted in scientific literature includes increased anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, eating disorders, harm from online bullying, impairment of self-control and regulation, and sleep deprivation.
The school district is taking part in the suit based on the belief that social media leads to behavioral problems and disruptions in schools, impairs student learning and requires staff to respond and intervene when social media platforms affect students’ mental and physical health.
“Basically, the information is coming from these social media companies,” Krizan said. “Not only did they do the studies showing their products were addictive to teenagers, but they continue to build them that way, as well. Being part of the litigations helps to, if successful, provide some support for the district in funds that we can use to do some additional training or support for our students that are dealing with addictions from those social media pieces, as well.”
Krizan said there was zero cost to the district, and the attorney fees would come from receiving 25% of whatever penalties are assessed against the social media companies. He noted this suit is separate from the one where Meta settled with states to pay $17 billion because of child safety issues.
Krizan said the work on the district’s side is expected to take about eight hours and would include providing the district’s enrollment numbers to attorneys.
“They just need to know how many students we had over the last X number of years,” Krizan said. “A lot of the litigation has already been done at the state level.”
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
