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Pal Item | Palladium-Item
Richmond Community Schools joins class-action lawsuit against social media companies
By Evan Weaver, Richmond Palladium-Item,
18 hours ago
RICHMOND, Ind. — Northeastern Wayne School Corp. has joined a multi-district litigation against social media companies Google, Meta, ByteDance and Snap, alleging they are responsible for mental health issues among students.
Other schools in the area, including Western Wayne Schools and Union County, have also joined, according to attorney Ron Cross.
Richmond Community Schools did the same Wednesday night.
The lawsuit, initially filed in California and led by St. Louis-based law firm Wagstaff & Cartmell, is a class action seeking compensation to school districts across the country "as a result of the development, operation, and marketing of social media platforms."
In the school board's resolution, RCS says it continues to experience significant problems, issues and concerns regarding the student use of social media to the point of causing a "substantial and ongoing risk" of interruption and disturbance to the district's educational mission.
The resolution also stated that social media use by students has resulted in the diversion of "already limited" school resources in an attempt to prevent excessive use and poses a significant risk to the emotional and physical health, overall self-esteem and general well-being of its students.
Cross, attorney for RCS and representative for other local schools, said he believes the case "is going to take on some legs in the fall" as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled for a deposition in the coming months.
The board voted 4-2 to join in the litigation, with President Kristen Brunton and member John Weber voting against it.
Weber said he agreed with the premise of the case but expressed concerns over the case affecting students more than the corporation.
"I'm not super comfortable that it's our money," Weber said.
Brunton said that although she is concerned about the effects of social media on kids, she did not think social media companies are 100% to blame. "I do think they have some blame, but I also think personal responsibility for parents also, and so I can't vote for litigation that I feel like is a money grab in some ways toward social media platforms."
Voting in favor of the resolution, Vice President Nicole Stults said she feels as if it is the corporation's responsibility to act instead of parents who are not supervising their children in regarding to social media intake.
"Just the damage that it's doing, and seeing these companies are preying on our kids' young minds," she said. "I feel that's what we're elected to do, is to act on behalf of the students."
Personal communication device policy tabled for review
As the result of the passage of new state Senate Bill 185, authored by local senator Jeff Raatz, schools across the state are required to adopt new or revised policies regarding "personal communication devices."
In the corporation bylaws, personal communication devices are defined as "computers, laptops, tablets, e-readers, cellular or mobile phones, smartphones, telephone paging devices (e.g., beepers or pagers) and/or other web-enabled devices of any type," with exceptions to the policy that correlate to the corporation's 1:1 Initiatives, according to Director of Human Resources Stacy Mopps.
RCS had already adopted a policy (titled 5136) on Feb. 28, which allows students to use devices before and after school, during lunch breaks and in between classes "as long as they do not create a distraction, disruption or otherwise interfere with the educational environment, and during after-school activities (e.g., extra-curricular activities), or at school-related functions."
During after-school activities, however, PCDs are to be powered completely off (not on vibrate or silent mode) and stored out of sight when directed by the administrator and sponsor, though they may be kept on in certain circumstances with approval from the building principal.
In its intended first and final reading of revisions at Wednesday's meeting, Stults made a motion, at the recommendation of the administration team, to remove "during lunch breaks and in between classes," effectively banning students from using their PCDs except for before and after school.
Several board members took issue with the proposed change, including Weber.
"I don't know why we'd do that," he said. "We're going to take them away and it's a total ban? It's shocking to me that the administration recommended it."
Superintendent Curtis Wright offered an explanation for the proposed change, saying that through conversations with other educators and teachers, schools are "dealing with behavior like never before" and that other districts have found success with an approach shifting away from students having their PCDs.
Weber said that argument made sense, although he added that the school's role is to "help the students become citizens and live in society," and prohibiting phones would just be telling them no instead of teaching how to use them responsibly.
Discussion on the policy took nearly 40 minutes, before going into an unscheduled conversation on when to hold policy reviews, whether it be at work sessions, broken out into a couple at a time at regular meetings or reviving working groups.
Ultimately, the board unanimously decided revisions to the policy would be tabled to a review at a future meeting.
New bill revises attendance policy
State Senate Bill 282 , dealing with absenteeism and also authored by Raatz, has led RCS to revise its attendance policy.
The previous version was not state-mandated as there was not a law already in place before 282's implementation at the start of July.
The new policy adds timelines that state how many absences a student can have before they need to be reported, as well as language that states that habitual truants will be reported to the county's prosecuting attorney, in addition to an intake officer of the juvenile court and the Indiana Department of Child Services.
The definition of a habitual truant did not differ from the previous policy, with it being defined as "a student who has been absent 10 days or more from school within a school year without being excused or without being absent under a parental request that has been filed with the school."
Mopps added the law allows schools across the state to be able to define what's considered an excused or unexcused absence.
The policy passed 4-2, with John Weber and Kym Pickering voting against it.
Staffing changes at Richmond Community Schools
Employment
Christine Bertsch, Interventionist, Test Intermediate, effective 8/2/2024.
Neil Blower, Applied Skills Special Education Teacher, effective 8/2/2024.
Christina Bosser, Applied Skills Teacher, Crestdale Elementary, effective 8/2/2024.
Viola Sue Breese, Preschool Paraprofessional, Westview Elementary, effective 8/6/2024.
Jennifer Buckler, Office Clerical, Hibberd, effective 7/25/2024.
Troy Creech, Specialty Maintenance, Warner Maintenance, effective 7/17/2024.
Paulette Wright-Deloney, School Counselor, Test Intermediate, effective 8/1/2024.
Benjamin Dilworth, Special Education Inclusion Teacher, Richmond High School, effective 8/2/2024.
Tito Rodriquez, Baseball Coach, Dennis Middle School, effective end of the 2023/2024 school year.
Changes in assignment
Stephanie Carlisle from Building Substitute Teacher to Library Paraprofessional at Crestdale Elementary, effective 8/5/2024.
Ashley Creech from Exceptional Student Education Paraprofessional at Vaile Elementary to Preschool Instructor at Fairview, effective 8/2/2024.
Krista Gilbert from Preschool Paraprofessional to Preschool Instructor at Starr Elementary, effective 8/2/2024.
Benjamin Mays from Preschool Paraprofessional at Crestdale to Building Substitute Teacher at Test Intermediate, effective 8/6/2024.
Jennifer Miller from Library Media Specialist to Second Grade Teacher at Starr Elementary, effective 8/2/2024.
Jennifer Lopez from Inclusion Paraprofessional to Spanish Teacher at Richmond High School, effective 8/2/2024.
Retirements
Emily Philpot, English Teacher, Richmond High School, effective 5/24/2024.
Correction to Board Consent item from the School Board Meeting on 6/19/2024: Coleton Everman, Mathematics Teacher, Dennis Middle School, effective 8/2/2024, (CRT, BC, RC). His name was presented incorrectly. We regret the error.
Evan Weaver is a news and sports reporter at The Palladium-Item. Contact him on X (@evan_weaver7) or email at eweaver@gannett.com .
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