Trillium Lakelands District School Board joins lawsuit against social media giants

The education director for the Trillium Lakelands District School board in central Ontario says social media giants need to offer a safer product for youth and students.

The school board based in Lindsay was one of five additional boards that have joined a lawsuit against the likes of Meta, Snapchat and TikTok, alleging the social media apps are negatively impacting students’ learning and mental health.

School board education director Wes Hahn says he first approached board trustees in January to suggest joining the lawsuit, which now includes seven other Ontario school boards and several private schools. The board was announced as joining the lawsuit on Wednesday.

“Because we really believe that the social media component of this was starting to become a major problem,” he told Global News.

Hahn says teachers noticed students experiencing “significant learning issues and mental health issues” during and exiting the COVID-19 pandemic. Along with it an increase in cellphone and social media use. He says it’s likely connected to many students who experienced isolation in their rural communities during the pandemic.

“Those things combined certainly we could see issues starting to rise like higher anxiety rates,” he said. “We did our school climate surveys. We saw students with disengagement issues in the classroom like we’d never seen. We started to see addictive nature behaviours reflective of using social media, aggressive behaviours.”

2:11 More Ontario school boards sue social media giants

Hahn said “most” suspensions and expulsions over the past three years were connected to social media apps such as Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.

“We’ve had property damage because of the way students have replicated things on TikTok,” he said. “So all of these things starting to come forward, I approached trustees in January as directors were talking about this issue and suggested that we move forward with this (lawsuit).”

Hahn says the board feels “aligned” with a recent move by the Ontario Ministry of Education to ban cellphones in classrooms beginning in the new school year this fall.

The neighbouring Peterborough-based Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board says it is reviewing the issue but has not made any decision on joining the lawsuit.

“We’re aware of the litigation amongst school boards in this matter, and continue to monitor the issue on an ongoing basis,” said board chairperson Jaine Klassen Jeninga. “In many respects, we acknowledge and appreciate the concerns that have been brought forward by school boards on behalf of students and families. This litigation is something we are exploring, but at this time no lawsuit has been filed.”

However, the Peterborough Victoria Northumberland Clarington Catholic District School Board says it has decided not to participate in the lawsuit.

“The board of trustees has had time to review the opportunity to join this lawsuit,” stated board chairperson Kevin MacKenzie. “The PVNC Catholic District School Board has opted not to join the legal proceedings at this time.

Dubbed “Schools for Social Media Change” the $2.6 billion lawsuit is being handled by Toronto-based Neinstein LLP. Senior associate Sonia Nijjar tells Global News the focus is on negligence by the social media giants.

None of the allegations in the lawsuit have been proven in court.

The lawsuit alleges “the negligent design of social media products causing compulsive use in students and how that has impacted school climate, disrupted the education system, caused significant challenges for the student population and for, of course, the schools,” Nijjar said.

She says while there is no precedent for school boards uniting for a claim of this type of societal issue, there is precedent for holding companies accountable for “harm” caused by their conduct.

“We say this is no different than any other product and manufacturer of that product or a company, manufacturer conducting themselves in a way that is less than standard,” she said. “I would say this is not unlike tobacco litigation, for example, where we know obviously now what the harms of those products were and what the practices of those companies were and contributing to those harms.

“So I would say, yes, there is precedent for this type of negligence claim. And, the novelty of it maybe is that it’s school boards coming together and saying, ‘hey, we’re not gonna with this anymore.'”

The lawsuit cites the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health which reports 91 per cent of Ontario students in Grades 7 to 12 use social media daily. Approximately 30 per cent use social media five or more hours per day.

Nijjar says have more school boards join the lawsuit after it was initially launched in March indicates “the gravity of the problem” for education systems.

“It’s now becoming clear the connection between these harms and what’s happening in the education system is definitely something that is very obvious now —for sure to the educators and to the administrators — but I think all of us as a society,” she said. “So I think it definitely shows the gravity of the problem. And I think it is a very important attempt to gain accountability from the companies who, we say, based on the claims that we’ve advanced, knew what they were doing.”

Nijjar says the “multifaceted” problem requires a multi-pronged approach and solutions are welcome “beyond the scope of our litigation.” However, she says the boards believe in the power of litigation to affect change.

“And we’re very much up to that task. And that’s what this is really all about —  to make safer products, to have a safer experience online for children and for students and for them to be able to to learn unfettered,” she said.

Hahn says social media and technology isn’t going away, however, it needs to be safer for youth. His school board represents 48 schools within Kawartha Lakes, Haliburton County, and Muskoka.

“We expect the product to be safer for the kids so that we don’t have these issues arising on a day-to-day basis,” he said.