HARRISONBURG, VA (Rocktown Now) — The Harrisonburg City School (HCPS) Board has passed a resolution during tonight’s meeting to join a lawsuit against social media corporations such as Meta, ByteDance (TikTok), Snap (Snapchat), and Google (YouTube), reportedly holding them accountable for the mental health crisis affecting school-aged children and the resulting disruption to public schools.

By joining a nationwide coalition of school districts in litigation, the Harrisonburg City School Board seeks money damages to help cover the rising financial and operational costs associated with managing the fallout of social media addiction within schools. With the exception of narrowly defined instructional uses of YouTube, this social media use occurs outside of the school day and not on division-issued devices; students in HCPS do not use social media as part of classroom instruction.

According to HCPS officials, the litigation targets companies whose products are specifically engineered to encourage compulsive and excessive use by children. Peer-reviewed scientific studies confirm that compulsive social media use significantly contributes to severe mental and physical health issues among students, including heightened anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, eating disorders, online bullying, reduced self-control, and sleep deprivation.

“And so, as an institution whose primary purpose is to protect children, I felt that it was important to suggest perhaps that the board look at joining one of these lawsuits,” said Superintendent Dr. Michael Richards.

To execute the lawsuit, the School Board has authorized a retainer agreement on a contingency fee basis with a team of legal counsel. Under the contingency fee agreement, Harrisonburg City Public Schools will incur no legal fees or costs unless damages are successfully recovered.