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Amid a growing mental health crisis among students, 33 Tennessee school systems have filed similar lawsuits against social media companies for protection for children across multiple popular platforms.

The lawsuits seek actionable accountability, tools and resources to address the lack of protections, monitors, controls and cooperation to protect children. Companies included in the lawsuit include Meta, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Google, WhatsApp and YouTube (Meta Platforms, Inc; Facebook Holdings, LLC; Facebook Operations, LLC; Meta Platforms Technologies, LLC; Meta Payments, Inc.; Instagram, LLC; Siculus, Inc.; Snap, Inc.; TikTok, Inc.; ByteDance, Inc.; Alphabet, Inc.; Google, LLC; XXVI Holdings, Inc.; WhatsApp, Inc.; and YouTube, LLC.).

The suits, with the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System filing as the first Tennessee district, now include multiple systems, including Shelby County Schools, the largest public school system in the state. Frantz Law Group in California, working with Lewis Thomason in Tennessee, is managing the lawsuit.

“The concern about the lack of proper protections and the negative impacts on children who use social media is clearly an important issue for school systems across the state,” Lewis Thomason attorney Chris McCarty said. “Hundreds of thousands of students are represented by these school systems, which amplifies the demands to social media giants.”

Chuck Carter, director of Sullivan County Schools, said, “With the ever-increasing use of social media among students, we’ve seen negative effects in the classroom, including disruptions, mental health issues and safety concerns. We’re charged with educating, preparing and protecting students and consider the requests in the lawsuit to be common sense solutions that could make a positive impact to combat these issues.”

The boards of all school systems in the social media litigation voted to join the lawsuit, and include:

Anderson County Schools, Bedford County Schools, Bledsoe County Schools, Blount County Schools, Cannon County Schools, Claiborne County Schools, Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools, Collierville Schools, Cumberland County Schools, Fentress County Schools, Grainger County Schools, Greene County Schools, Greeneville City Schools, Hamblen County Schools, Humphreys County Schools, Johnson City Schools, Johnson County Schools, Knox County Schools, Lenoir City Schools, Lincoln County Schools, Loudon County Schools, Maryville City Schools, Metro Nashville Public Schools, Oak Ridge City Schools, Oneida Special School District\, Putnam County Schools, Sevier County Schools, Shelby County Schools, Stewart County Schools, Sullivan County Schools, Van Buren County Schools, Warren County Schools, and Wilson County Schools.

“Controls for student access to these platforms combined with helpful resources have the potential to help parents, teachers and students as they navigate social media,” said William Shinoff, an attorney with the Frantz Law Group. “These media giants have an opportunity – and a responsibility – to protect children.”

Other Tennessee school districts interested in joining the lawsuit may contact: Chris McCarty, Attorney at Law, Lewis Thomason, cmccarty@lewisthomason.com, 865-541-5256