The Hamilton County school board voted to join a coalition of school districts nationwide in suing social media companies over their role in the student mental health crisis.
The theory behind the lawsuit is that social media giants — including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok — are deliberately targeting young people for commercial gain, said Scott Bennett, the board’s lawyer.
“They’re doing so in a way that is, at a minimum, taking advantage of antisocial behaviors and is, in fact, actually fostering some of those behaviors,” he said. “Districts around the country are watching a tremendous increase in the number of disciplinary issues that administrators have to address, cyberbullying instances that occur during school hours and after school hours, and untold other problems that are affecting the school climate over which school administrators have no control.”
The board’s vote came Thursday.