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Attorney outlines option for Mercer Island School District to join mass suits against social media platforms
Summary
At a Mercer Island School District study session, attorney Chris Greer of Keller Rohrback described how school districts nationwide are suing major social media companies over alleged harms to student mental health and recommended federal multidistrict litigation as the most active venue; board members asked for more information and a list of bellw
Chris Greer, an attorney with Keller Rohrback LLP, told the Mercer Island School District board at a study session that hundreds of school districts have sued major social media companies over harms they say the platforms cause to students’ mental health.
Greer said the consolidated federal multidistrict litigation — and a parallel state-court proceeding known as a JCCP in California — currently include more than 1,300 school districts and that federal court appears to be the more active forum. “When I say that, I’m referring to kind of 4 for 5 platforms. So it’s Meta, both Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and then Google, specifically for YouTube,” Greer said, summarizing the defendants named in the complaints.
Why it matters: school districts tell the board they are carrying increased counseling and supervision burdens tied to students’ mental health and classroom time, and litigation proponents say a successful outcome could deliver both monetary recovery and prospective changes to how platforms operate.
Greer described two main categories of claims being pursued by districts: public nuisance and negligence, and he explained why venue matters. He told the board that a federal judge in the Northern District of California denied the companies’ motion to dismiss public nuisance and negligence claims in the federal MDL, allowing those district claims to proceed; in contrast, he said some state-court bellwether rulings relied on Section 230 protections and were dismissed and are now under appeal.
Greer described the practical steps for a district that wants to join the federal action: a short-form complaint that adopts a detailed master complaint, and a plaintiff fact sheet used by counsel to select a limited number of bellwether districts for fuller discovery and possible trial. He said the initial burden for a district that joins but is not selected as a bellwether is comparatively small — the short-form complaint and a short intake — and estimated that most individual staff members would spend “a handful of hours” assembling the necessary initial documents.
Board members asked about potential downsides. Greer said some districts decline because of bandwidth, staff time or local political optics, and some ask whether technology vendors or partners (for example, device or software providers) might retaliate; Greer said he has not seen those negative outcomes arise in practice but acknowledged the concern.
Potential benefits Greer described include compensation for past district expenses tied to counseling and supervision, programmatic remedies such as expanded counseling and youth-mental-health programming under an abatement theory, and injunctive relief that would seek changes to platform design and practices. He said the litigation team will bring public-health and clinical experts to support proposed injunctive changes.
Board members asked for follow-up materials. Greer said he would provide a list of bellwether districts, a local-state filing list, and additional written materials about the claims and the startup steps for a district that wants to join.
No board action was taken at the study session; members asked for more information and placed the matter on the board’s follow-up list.
