Lee County Schools to join lawsuit against social media companies

May 16—Although the vote was close, the Lee County school board on Tuesday agreed to join several neighboring counties in suing social media companies for causing various problems with students.

Board members talked about the mental health issues associated with too much social media interactions by students on sites such as TikTok, SnapChat, Instagram and Facebook.

The members received information about joining the lawsuit during a closed session at the beginning of the meeting, according to Ed Davidson, board chair.

Board member Patrick Kelly said several other county school boards had signed onto the suit, including Chatham, Cumberland, Johnston, Moore and Wake. He added that both left-wing and right-wing counties were supporting the effort to extract a financial win from the social media sites.

"These [sites] have been specifically designed to capture and keep the attention of young people and direct them to information that ends up being harmful," board attorney Stephen Rawson said. Ensuing disruptions and disciplinary actions take away from instruction time. Rawson said such legal action is similar to that taken against the maker of Juul e-cigarettes, which contain highly-addictive nicotine, according to the American Lung Association.

"I don't like it," board member Alan Rummel said, adding that it's "passing the blame for an issue that falls on parents or guardians ... Parents are responsible for what [students] access and what they don't."

Referring to a presentation the board heard earlier in the session by high school students mentoring middle school students about bullying, Rummel said, "There's more substance to that than joining a lawsuit." He was referring to the Teen Outreach Program.

"While I would love to stick it to some of them [social media sites], I don't think suing them is the way to do it. I don't see any laws they've broken," he said, adding that Congress could pass a law to make social media algorithms illegal.

"I see it more as a products liability association," board member Sandra Bowen said, equating the social media sites with "setting the house on fire."

She said the sites have caused a firestorm in local schools, creating a mental health crisis, distraction and discipline issues.

"The damage is quantifiable. It's dollars and cents," she added.

Board member Chris Gaster said the mental health crisis "is only a slice of the pie." He noted that the bigger issue is the destruction of the family unit.

Gaster said that state edicts regarding masks and closure of schools during the Covid-19 pandemic "created the beginning stages of a mental health crisis. It was destroying children."

"If we want to spend our money, let's go after the federal government who is throwing Title Nine down our throats," he said. Gaster was referring to a recent rule made by the federal Department of Education regarding gender identity.

Twenty-two states have sued the Biden Administration over the regulation, which was issued late last month, according to NBCNews.com.

Title IX was enacted in 1972 to prevent sex-based discrimination and sexual harassment in educational programs and activities funded by the federal government. It has more recently been interpreted to include gender.

"We have to deal with it on the business end," Gaster said, noting that school districts could lose federal funds if they don't comply with federal rules.

"The child has to deal with that. Their brains are not developed [enough] to put up with that nonsense," he added. "If we win [a lawsuit], it won't change a flippin' thing because you're going against a monster."

"If you don't see the indoctrination of children, then I don't know what you're smoking, but it's gotta be better than dope," he said.

Kelly noted that Lee County got $900,000 from a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies over their promotion of opioid drugs.

Kelly said the school board could expand the Teen Outreach Program with any funds from a lawsuit against social media companies.

Board member Jamey Laudate agreed that parents could say no to allowing their teenagers to use certain social media sites, but this would close students out of communication with some of their friends. "It's tough to make that call," he said.

Laudate noted that Aza Raskin developed "infinite scroll" for Mozilla in 2006, which results in "no end to the page." Raskin later regretted his work, Laudate said, adding that infinite scrolling "is like sprinkling behavioral cocaine all over the platform."

"it's the platform, not the content," Laudate said. "It's designed to mimic gambling" in firing dopamine receptors in one's brain.

Algorithms were created in 2007, he added. At that time, Facebook came up with "news feed." Prior to that time, Facebook users would only see their friends' posts.

The technology "makes predictions on what you will see on your news feed," Laudate said. "The platform is what we're talking about with this lawsuit."

He noted that emergency room "self harm" visits, presumably for youth, increased 60% from 2007 to 2019, or pre-covid-19.

"It makes perfect sense when you explain it like that," board member Sherry Lynn Womack said, however she still voted against the measure. She noted that the school district could be inadvertently liable for some problems because it sent school buses into areas during Covid-19 so that students could access the internet.

"We blocked some of the social media in our local network in the schools," Laudate said.

Rummel suggested that if the school district is going to sue social media companies, they should also sue government entities. Social media sites didn't make anyone sign up, but "the government kind of did," he said, referring to school closures that limited social interaction.

Bowen said the "government has immunity" from such suits.

Laudate made a motion to approve and join the lawsuit, which was seconded by Bowen. Kelly joined them in voting yes, while Gaster, Rummel and Womack voted no. Davidson then cast the deciding vote in favor.

Rawson noted this is an individual lawsuit and not a class action suit. It has no cost to the school district, although there likely would be a penalty if they decide to withdraw at some point. That fee would be decided through arbitration, he said.

Rawson said the board could vote on a contract for legal services in relation to the lawsuit at their June meeting. He noted that his law firm is not involved in the litigation.