KYLE MURPHYStaff Writer

Tullahoma City Schools recently accepted an agreement to join over 30 Tennessee school systems in a lawsuit against social media companies for protection for children across multiple popular platforms.

The discussion about the lawsuit before the Tullahoma City Schools Board of Education during its March meeting, where Director of Schools Dr. Catherine Stephens explained the lawsuit to the board. Stephens said the school district’s attorney, Bennett & DeCamp, PLLC, provided her with information about a national social media lawsuit that alleges that social media companies target the youth with materials that have led to “social and emotional distress on students, and an increase in bullying, harassment and disciplinary issues.”

“Quite frankly, I couldn’t have agreed more with these challenges,” Stephens said. “These issues require an extensive amount of time for our administrators in the school to deal with social media connected disciplinary matters.”

According to a joint press release from law firms Lewis Thomason and Frantz Law Group, who are representing 33 Tennessee school systems, the lawsuits seek accountability, tools and resources to address the lack of protections, monitors, controls and cooperation to protect children. The companies in the lawsuit include Meta, who owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube and Google.

“The concern about the lack of proper protections and the negative impacts on children who use social media is clearly an important issue for school systems across the state,” Lewis Thomason attorney Chris McCarty said. “Hundreds of thousands of students are represented by these school systems, which amplifies the demands to social media giants.”

After reading over the lawsuit, Stephens said TCS should join the lawsuit as it will require minimal work from the district to provide the information needed for the suit.

“I recommend joining this MDL (multidistrict lawsuit) as we may be able to recover expenses occurred in light of the mental health crisis and displinary issues connecting to social media platforms and the companies that run them,” Stephens said.

Stephens said the district’s attorney recommended with working with Frantz Law Group, who will communicate with the Bennett & DeCamp, who will in turn reach out to Stephens for the lawsuit regarding what material and information needed. Stephens told the board that they will not have to pay fees or costs associated as the attorneys’ fees and expenses will be recovered after a settlement is reached or a decision is made in the case.

“From Mr. Bennett’s perspective, the greater financial risk is not joining this lawsuit as our financial exposure is zero,” Stephens said.

The motion Stephens presented to the school board was that the board accept the recommendation by administration to enter the lawsuit against social media companies and accepting the agreement as presented. When up for discussion, school board member Pat Welsh asked how many other school systems that Bennett & DeCamp represent have joined the suit, and Stephens said all 17 school systems that the firm represents are all considering it, with some have already had their board meetings and joined. She added that school systems have until May 1 to enter the lawsuit, and she expects to see more school districts joining.

Stephens then asked a high school administrator in the audience, from her perspective, if they would agree that social media has caused unnecessary concerns for young people, as well as disciplinary issues, bullying and so on, and the administrator said yes. Stephens asked if she had seen these issues increase overtime and getting progressively worse, which the administrator said yes.

“We are seeing this at all levels across our district and it is just horrifying how the control that these social media platforms have,” Stephens said. “How they influence young minds who are not capable of understanding and discerning as well as they should be able to.”

With no further discussion, the board unanimously approved the recommendation of joining the lawsuit. The school district will join the following school systems, represented by Lewis Thomason and Frantz Law Group, in the lawsuit as of writing: Anderson County Schools; Bedford County Schools; Bledsoe County Schools; Blount County Schools; Cannon County Schools; Claiborne County Schools; Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools; Collierville Schools; Cumberland County Schools; Fentress County Schools; Grainger County Schools; Greene County Schools; Greeneville City Schools; Hamblen County Schools; Humphreys County Schools; Johnson City Schools; Johnson County Schools; Knox County Schools; Lenoir City Schools; Lincoln County Schools; Loudon County Schools; Maryville City Schools; Metro Nashville Public Schools; Oak Ridge City Schools; Oneida Special School District; Putnam County Schools; Sevier County Schools; Shelby County Schools; Stewart County Schools; Sullivan County Schools; Van Buren County Schools; Warren County Schools; and Wilson County Schools.