The Covington Independent School District Board of Education unanimously voted to join litigation against several social media companies at their meeting last week.
The lawsuit, which was initially instigated by Fayette County Schools and was later joined by Boone County and Jefferson County Schools, among others, alleges that social media platforms have indelibly and deliberately undermined students’ mental health, according to federal court documents.
It seeks damages in the form of funds to build out mental health infrastructure in schools. Similar lawsuits have occurred in other parts of the country as well.
Board attorney Mary Ann Stewart introduced the proposal at the end of a Board of Education meeting on April 27, in which she compared the lawsuit to similar class action lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies for region-wide problems with opioid addiction.
“The train has left the station, and I think we should get on that train,” Stewart said.
The trail would likely not take place in Kentucky, she added. Stewart herself would not financially benefit from the result of the case.
The lawsuit’s court documents contain nearly 90 pages of arguments, with citations from numerous sources describing how social media functions, its prevalence in students’ lives, its detrimental effects on students’ mental health, and risks associated with online bullying and harassment.
It also contends that social media companies deliberately fashioned their platforms to be addictive to capture children and adolescents’ attention.
One cited study, performed by the Pew Research Center in 2022 with nearly 1,400 pairs of parents and children from around the country, suggests large numbers of teenagers are using a social media platforms either almost all day or regularly throughout the day.
The lawsuit was filed against the following companies:
- Meta Platforms, Inc.
- Facebook Holdings, LLC
- Facebook Operations, LLC
- Meta Payments, Inc.
- Facebook Technologies, LLC
- Instagram, LLC
- Siculus, Inc.
- Snap, Inc.
- Tiktok, Inc.
- Bytedance, Inc.
- Alphabet, Inc.
- Google, LLC
- XXVI Holdings, Inc.
- Youtube, LLC
The resolution to join the lawsuit passed with little discussion. Stewart said that the district would probably not see any disbursements of money related to the lawsuit for several years.