Orange County Public Schools is considering joining eight other school districts in Florida and throughout the country in a lawsuit against major social media companies.
School boards in Florida and across the US are suing Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and TikTok for damages they say students incurred on the platforms.
Districts claim social media opens students up to online bullying, harassment, and threats and contributes to overall poor mental health.
Attorney Franklin Harrison who filed the original complaint against the companies said joining the lawsuit could help OCPS in multiple ways.
“We're not going to change the kids of America and social media, you know, they love it," said Harrison. "What we're going to hope to do, one, is money, because it damages you in trying to run your school system. Two, we hope to get some accountability by them going forward, so that we don't have the same problems in the future.”
Member Pam Gould says she’s on board.
“I’m personally in favor of this financially and helping to educate our students against some of the nefarious target marketing to them.”
In March of this year, the school board was awarded $5 million dollars in a settlement, against JUUL, an e-cigarette company that targeted young people with their ads.
Watch the full school board meeting below:
