Bernalillo Public Schools signs onto social media addiction lawsuit

BERNALILLO — Bernalillo Public Schools has joined in a lawsuit with other school districts nationwide, alleging that major social media companies are contributing to a mental health crisis among students.

The district recently inked a deal for Albuquerque-based law firm Singleton Schreiber to represent them in litigation, filed in December 2023, against Meta, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube.

The agreement between BPS and the firm, which includes former New Mexico State Auditor Brian Colón as a managing partner, comes after the BPS Board of Education unanimously voted June 26 to allow school officials to enter into a contract for legal services.

“There’s a lot of social media out there that affects and has affected student learning and behaviors in a derogatory manner for a long period of time,” BPS Board President Paul Madrid said. “The hope is the wrongs can be righted.”

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, asks for unspecified amounts of punitive, compensatory and statutory damages, in addition to ordering the companies to provide mental health counseling resources to youth negatively impacted by social media. The complaint also asks a judge to declare that the companies engaged in a form of “public nuisance” against children and order them to reduce harmful aspects of their platforms.

In an interview, Colón said his legal team believes the companies advanced their product containing algorithms they knew were going to be harmful to children.

“I believe that by and large, families understand that there has been a negative impact, in many cases, on the mental health of our children due to these social media platforms,” Colón said. “They put their profits ahead of our families’ safety and well-being because the profits were more important than people.”

Attorneys for Meta, SnapChat, TikTok and YouTube deny the claims and demand a jury trial, according to court filings.

Though Colón’s legal team and BPS officials are in talks over the lawsuit, it may be a while before the school district sees any outcome, the former state auditor said.

That’s because a federal judge selected six school districts — located in Maryland, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, South Carolina and Arizona — to serve as the first “bellwether trials” in the litigation, according to Colón.

“It’s just a mere indication as to how the cases might go and that will either motivate (the companies) to try to resolve more cases or harden their position,” he said.

Setting these trials in a case that involves more than 200 school districts nationwide is also more manageable for the judge, who gets to select which cases are going to be tried first.

“After those trials, the judge will then determine how he is going to set the next cases for trial,” Colón said.

He said litigation encompassing multiple jurisdictions involves a long process and BPS officials are aware of that.

“What we’ve done is put them in the process so they can be at the table when there’s an opportunity for either settlement negotiations or to go to trial,” Colón said.

His legal team is eager to attend the next hearing in the case, scheduled for Aug. 20.

“We’re waiting for a status conference and then going to be putting our client, Bernalillo schools, in the best position for the case,” Colón said.