Lawsuit pressures could bring change
Last week, Peterborough and district public school board trustees were told a proposed $520 million budget for the coming school year can work, but money will be tight.
The next day, the public school board serving Lindsay and area was confirmed as one of five Ontario boards and two private schools that launched a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against four of the most popular social media platforms.
The suit filed by Trillium Lakelands school board along with Catholic boards in Ottawa, Dufferin-Peel and York regions and Niagara public board seeks nearly $2.6 billion from TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram.
Four other Ontario boards had already filed their own
$4.5-billion action against the same companies.
Trustees and educators at Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board and their Catholic counterpart, Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington board, must have taken notice.
Money is tight. There are growing concerns over classroom use of cellphones and the ubiquitous nature of social media targeting young people.
Educators like Wes Hahn, Trillium Lakelands’ education director, say more students are affected by bullying directed through Instagram and Snapchat on their phones.
Students are more anxious and suspensions and expulsions are rising.
The statements of claim filed in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice say schools are spending more on staff and resources to deal with behavioural and learning issues, and the social media giants should be covering some of those costs because they deliberately target young users.
Similar suits have been filed by hundreds of school districts, and even state governments, in the United States.
There are strong arguments for the two Peterborough boards to join in.
The bullying and mental-health concerns are well documented, and schools are where they often play out.
While there is no guarantee the suits will succeed, courts in the U.S. and Europe have fined social media companies billions in actions brought by governments over competition and business practice concerns.
The potential financial reward alone is tempting. The law firm representing Trillium Lakelands and its fellow suitors will be paid on a contingency basis if the suit succeeds, so there is little monetary risk beyond staff time.
And since the suits follow a basic template, not a lot of time is required relative to the potential payoff.
A rough approximation of what a board could receive, based on what the five boards are asking for and enrolment numbers, comes out to $11,800 per pupil. For Kawartha Pine Ridge board, with 34,000 students, that would be $400 million, less their share of legal fees.
An award of even some percentage of what is being sought would be well worth the effort.
Given the number of actions already filed and others that will inevitably follow, ability to pay might be a concern even in the case of incredibly lucrative companies like TikTok and Meta, which owns Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram.
On the other hand, Facebook has a current stock market valuation of $1.2 trillion U.S. ($1.64 trillion Canadian). TikTok, while under siege by U.S. politicians demanding its Chinese owner sell the company, is estimated to be worth more than $100 billion.
Money aside, massed legal action by school jurisdictions across North America could prompt Meta and TikTok to make their platforms safer and more responsible.
Any payout from suing social media giants would be years, potentially decades, away. But the potential benefit, and the added pressure for reform that mass action would bring, means local boards must give serious consideration to joining in.