One nation’s children and teenagers are facing an urgent mental health crisis, perhaps the worst ever faced by school-age kids. It is a misnomer to think that the crisis started with the pandemic — it did not — it was brewing before 2020. Initially, the trend lines baffled researchers, however, there is now no question that the dramatic increase in suicidal behavior, anxiety and depression in school-age children is linked to social media use and, in some cases, social media addiction. The situation is so dire that U.S. Surgeon General Vice Admiral Vivek Murthy just issued a important Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Health chronicling the challenges posed by social media and the mounting evidence of risk of harm to children and adolescents.
Many residents may not know that, in March, the San Mateo County Board of Education and Superintendent Nancy Magee filed the first of what has become numerous lawsuits by California schools against social media companies for the harm being inflicted on students. Taking a stand took immense courage — especially given the fact that most residents (and school board members) have friends or family who work at the defendant companies, which include YouTube, Google, Alphabet, Facebook, Instagram, Meta, TikTok and Snap.
Jefferson Union High School District, Jefferson Elementary School District, Bayshore Elementary School District, South San Francisco Unified School District and Cabrillo Unified School District have all joined the effort, filing their own lawsuits. They have been joined by schools spanning the entire country — from Pennsylvania and Oregon, to Kentucky and Indiana.
Teachers and school administrators have been at the front lines and seen how social media has harmed students. Teachers and administrators are dealing with cyberbullying. Schools are being vandalized as the result of so-called social media “challenges.” At the start of this past school year several schools in San Mateo County were vandalized as part of a TikTok challenge called “Devious Lick.” The bathrooms at one local high school had to be closed for costly repairs. There are instances of kids being driven toward suicide by content from social media. There are instances of sexual predators targeting youth on social media, sometimes leading to real-life sexual assault.
There are also less extreme, but more insidious negative effects flowing from social media. Kids are more isolated and less likely to physically interact with friends. Kids are favoring screen time over outdoor activities and leisure reading. Social media use leads to short attention spans. Problematic social media use is even linked to rising rates of ADHD. In short, school-age children are in crisis.
As President Biden noted in his State of the Union address earlier this year, social media companies are running an “experiment” “on our children for profit.” It is critical that we commend and support the efforts by our local schools to effect change and that we call upon social media companies to prioritize children’s health and safety over profits and growing of their user bases.
Anne Marie Murphy, an attorney representing school boards across the state with Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy LLP.
Nancy Magee didn't do that to protect our children, she does that as a distraction to point away from problems of her own doing. Her Community College District SMCCCD is working through a massive corruption scandal and we have seen similar schemes running at various of her other districts too. She had her own 'Conflict of Interest' problem - as reported by DJ. These school 'leaders' are way too close to 'corporate interest'. It is highly questionable when a County Superintendent of Schools gives speeches and mingles with various developers at the San Mateo County Progress Seminar. She should be providing oversight to prevent that kind of connection. We don't need more 'corporate interest' running our schools - we need less.
When the county first filed the lawsuit they left out Facebook and Instagram because FB is giving money to local schools in EPA and NFO. Only various media questions and requests led to adding FB to the lawsuit at a later stage.
All these board trustees in San Mateo county could do way more to help our kids - but it is always easier to put the blame on somebody else instead of taking responsibility and real action.
These schools need to completely cut themselves off of developers and consultants and go back to focusing on education. These various relationships should be looked at by the Civil Grand Jury.
We should not ignore the fact, which has been corroborated by European countries, that social media has wrought other unintended problems. We are not very honest about the sudden proliferation of the transgender issue. This gender questioning barely existed until our children were subjected to this faddish bombardment and were influenced unbeknownst to their parents. How is it possible that a minute percentage of our population suddenly is struggling and is front page news? Their is an agenda that is promulgated by those who prefer division over stability and unity. I applaud the school districts for taking on the social media scourge.
The problem with "culture wars" is that they always distract from the main issues. The point here is fairly obvious and is has absolutely nothing to do with the mental health of our children. Nancy Magee is in a position to provide solutions for this problem within her means.
Just look who wrote this article. It wasn't written by a concerned parent, it wasn't written by a parent or child who lived through the experience, it wasn't even written by a politician to garner political points. It was written by an attorney from Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy LLP, the company that filed the lawsuit for the district.
If this really was about mental health for our children, this lawsuit against Facebook and Google would have been filed by the CA AG Rob Bonta or by US AG Merrick Garland. Both already have an armada of salaried attorneys with way more experience going against big companies. Why do hundreds of school boards have to hire independent counsel filing lawsuit after lawsuit using attorneys who usually defend self-centered school boards against over-anxious parents?
No, what the author is really doing here is called "quid-pro-quo". She could also just have published a note reading "Thanks Nancy for keep sending jobs our way".
[Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy LLP is also the law firm the college district was using to file the lawsuit against ABB, Bunton Clifford, Black Constructions, and others, in connection with the College District corruption scandal, where Trustees were sleeping at the wheel while wasting precious education dollars. ]
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(3) comments
Nancy Magee didn't do that to protect our children, she does that as a distraction to point away from problems of her own doing. Her Community College District SMCCCD is working through a massive corruption scandal and we have seen similar schemes running at various of her other districts too. She had her own 'Conflict of Interest' problem - as reported by DJ. These school 'leaders' are way too close to 'corporate interest'. It is highly questionable when a County Superintendent of Schools gives speeches and mingles with various developers at the San Mateo County Progress Seminar. She should be providing oversight to prevent that kind of connection. We don't need more 'corporate interest' running our schools - we need less.
When the county first filed the lawsuit they left out Facebook and Instagram because FB is giving money to local schools in EPA and NFO. Only various media questions and requests led to adding FB to the lawsuit at a later stage.
All these board trustees in San Mateo county could do way more to help our kids - but it is always easier to put the blame on somebody else instead of taking responsibility and real action.
These schools need to completely cut themselves off of developers and consultants and go back to focusing on education. These various relationships should be looked at by the Civil Grand Jury.
We should not ignore the fact, which has been corroborated by European countries, that social media has wrought other unintended problems. We are not very honest about the sudden proliferation of the transgender issue. This gender questioning barely existed until our children were subjected to this faddish bombardment and were influenced unbeknownst to their parents. How is it possible that a minute percentage of our population suddenly is struggling and is front page news? Their is an agenda that is promulgated by those who prefer division over stability and unity. I applaud the school districts for taking on the social media scourge.
The problem with "culture wars" is that they always distract from the main issues. The point here is fairly obvious and is has absolutely nothing to do with the mental health of our children. Nancy Magee is in a position to provide solutions for this problem within her means.
Just look who wrote this article. It wasn't written by a concerned parent, it wasn't written by a parent or child who lived through the experience, it wasn't even written by a politician to garner political points. It was written by an attorney from Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy LLP, the company that filed the lawsuit for the district.
If this really was about mental health for our children, this lawsuit against Facebook and Google would have been filed by the CA AG Rob Bonta or by US AG Merrick Garland. Both already have an armada of salaried attorneys with way more experience going against big companies. Why do hundreds of school boards have to hire independent counsel filing lawsuit after lawsuit using attorneys who usually defend self-centered school boards against over-anxious parents?
No, what the author is really doing here is called "quid-pro-quo". She could also just have published a note reading "Thanks Nancy for keep sending jobs our way".
[Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy LLP is also the law firm the college district was using to file the lawsuit against ABB, Bunton Clifford, Black Constructions, and others, in connection with the College District corruption scandal, where Trustees were sleeping at the wheel while wasting precious education dollars. ]
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PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
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