Greenwood Community School Corporation is located at 605 W. Smith Valley Road in Greenwood. Erika Malone | Daily Journal
Four of the six public school districts have joined national litigation against major social media companies.
Greenwood and Clark-Pleasant Community School Corporations were the two to recently join the lawsuit after approval from school board members, alongside Franklin and Center Grove Community School Corporation, which joined earlier this year.
Wagstaff & Cartmell, a Kansas City-based law firm, is part of a nationwide consortium of law firms alleging in the lawsuit that social media companies like Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube are knowingly “endangering children and teens through excessive and problematic social media use.”
“This is a full-blown public health crisis, and schools are left to deal with the mental, emotional and financial fallout,” said Michael Cutler, partner of the law firm. “The burden on educators is growing while tech companies profit from designs that deliberately exploit the minds of kids.”
According to a 2023 study on the impact of social media on the mental health of adolescents and young adults, higher levels of social media usage were connected with worse mental health outcomes, and the use of social media was also connected with body image problems and disordered eating.
In response, more than 1,800 public school systems, including over 92 in Indiana, have joined a national lawsuit against major social media companies.
Unlike a class action, each school district is an individual plaintiff, and the legal team is working on a contingency basis. If no recovery is made, there is no cost or reimbursement required from participating schools. The first anticipated school district trial is slated for June of 2026.
“Educators are telling us that they’re seeing scheduled fights organized through apps, bullying amplified by digital platforms, and students who can’t disconnect long enough to focus in class,” said Austin Bane, another partner at the law firm. “Districts are hiring more counselors, expanding crisis response teams, and struggling to meet the growing mental and behavioral health needs of their students. This litigation is a way to hold tech companies accountable for their role in the crisis.”
Wagstaff & Cartmell was part of the same legal team that successfully sued JUUL Labs on behalf of U.S. school districts, which resulted in settlements totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.
“As social media companies have evolved into sophisticated, attractive and super-efficient communication methods over the past two decades, it has had a significant impact upon the culture, norms and trends of our adolescent youth, which, in turn, affects the educational learning and environment,” said Clark-Pleasant superintendent Tim Edsell.
While there have been some positive benefits from social media, Edsell said, there are concerning implications from excessive use of social media. Some of these implications include an increase in bullying and harassment; following and imitating dangerous, destructive criminal trends and spending too much time on screens that are not educational, just to name a few, he added.
“Undoubtedly, as educators, we have observed how excessive social media engagement has negatively affected our students’ mental well-being, our students’ physical well-being and our students’ social well-being,” Edsell said. “The challenge to educate and to prepare our students for their future successes and endeavors is becoming harder and harder.
Currently, Edinburgh and Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson United School Corporations are the only two school districts in Johnson County not participating in the lawsuit. Superintendent Jim Halik from Edinburgh said the school board was not interested in participating due to its small student enrollment.
To join, schools need to fill out a 35-page fact sheet citing instances of social media problems in their schools, counseling, mental health and discipline data for their school district. The information provided would not identify any personal information of individuals or children.
Any Indiana school districts interested in participating in the national lawsuit may contact Austin Brane at 816-701-1100 or abrane@wcllp.com or Scott Yonover at 312-560-5120 by March 1.
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