Mishawaka School Board reaches a unanimous decision to sue social media companies for harming students

MISHAWAKA, Ind. - It was a unanimous decision for Mishawaka School Board to go forward with the lawsuit against major social media companies: Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Snapchat, as studies are showing that addictive social media is harmful to students. 

This lawsuit is spearheaded by Wagstaff and Cartmell who have taken up the cause against social media companies throughout the country.

"Due to the conduct of these social media companies, a new generation of children are suffering from addiction and other related mental health issues, which as uniquely impacted schools and forced them to incur a multitude of costs to address this problem." -Wagstaff and Cartmell stated in their litigation. 

This lawsuit comes after Wagstaff and Cartmell's litigation against JUUL, the e-cigarette manufacturer who was "responsible for creating a youth vaping epidemic among school campuses." 

The school board members met on Wednesday, August 16, but it's unclear how many Indiana schools with join the lawsuit. 

Concord School District is leading the charge, now along with Mishawaka, with Elkhart taking it under advisement.

However, it's expected that as many schools who took part in the JUUL lawsuit, about 86, will take up the cause. 

Superintendent of Mishawaka School System, Theodore Stevens, is seeking social media companies to be held responsible for the "negative behavior showcased by students."

He says that when negative consequences occur, students will look to suicide or acts of that nature--which is a correlation of the impact from social media. 

There will not be any legal fees for this lawsuit, but if a settlement is reached, Stevens said, "our plan would be to try to utilize those funds to address some of those mental health concerns, behavior concerns and needs that exist with our students."