PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles School District is the lone public school district on the North Olympic Peninsula to join a class-action lawsuit against social media companies.
The Port Angeles School Board at its March 29 meeting agreed to be represented by Frantz Law Group in the suit, which alleges that companies like Facebook, TikTok, Snap and YouTube have caused a “mental health crisis among children and teenagers,” according to a letter the legal group sent the districts.
The San Diego firm is the same one that represented the North Olympic Peninsula districts in the Juul lawsuit.
Declined to join
Districts that declined to join the class-action social media lawsuit cited the time-intensive nature of preparations for the Juul lawsuit and what they saw as a having to prove the less definitive link between social media and worsening teen’s mental health than the one between vaping and physical harm.
“It feels to us like it’s a bit nebulous,” Sequim Superintendent Regan Nickels said. “We do recognize that social media can have very positive effects as well, so it didn’t seem as obvious as the Juul settlement did to pursue.”
Chimacum Superintendent Scott Mauk said that after its experience in the Juul lawsuit, Chimacum declined to join as well.
“It’s just a lot more work and it’s not as clear-cut,” Mauk said. “That’s not to diminish the harm of social media, but the Juul case was pretty straightforward.”
That was Crescent Superintendent Dave Bingham’s take as well. Bingham said that after weighing the investment of his time putting together the information Frantz needed for the lawsuit against the district’s settlement — which after Frantz took its cut would leave it about $6,660 — was simply not worth it. Especially when there was no guarantee the plaintiffs would prevail in a case that seemed to him must less certain than the Juul case.
PASD Superintendent Marty Brewer acknowledged drawing a line between vaping and the risks to teen health was more clear than proving social media use caused mental distress, but said he nonetheless agreed with the school board’s 4-1 decision to join the lawsuit. (Board member Katie Marks was the only dissenting vote).
“This one is not nearly as cut and dry,” Brewer said. “But it’s an issue that we have to tackle and maybe this lawsuit will bring enough attention to that and have some resources to tackle it as an educational organization. The social media experience is larger than the hours of the school day, so there needs to be a more broad-based community attempt to create a healthy experience for our young adults.”
There is no such thing as a social media detector like there is a vaping detector.”
Paula Hunt can be reached at 360-425-2345, ext. 50583, or by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.
