We publish an article by Lou Iacobelli from the blog everydayforlifecanada.blogspot.com

TORONTO – Just days ago four of Ontario’s largest school boards filed a lawsuit against social media giants Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. They accuse the companies of having an adverse effect on student leaning. 

The boards are the Toronto District School Board, the Peel District School Board, the Toronto Catholic District School Board and the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. It’s all being done with tax dollars so each board filed a separate case in the Ontario’s Superior Court. The lawyers must be laughing all the way to the bank. 

So, the widespread use of social platforms is making it difficult for students to pay attention, to learn and also hurting students’ mental health. The addictive nature of social media is negatively impacting the boards’ resources as they are forced to spend more money on student mental health, programming personnel, an increase in general IT costs, as well added administrative resources. This is what the boards claim. 

The boards are seeking 4.5 billion in damages to student learning and the educational system. Good luck proving it in court. The legal minds will try do it for they have nothing to lose. In fact, win or lose they will make piles of money.

If the boards really wanted to stop the invasive nature of social media in schools, they would simply ban the student use of social media during schools hours. The cost of this initiative is zero dollars. In addition, the boards could create new programs to address the problem caused by social media by shifting the dollars they waste to push woke policies of inclusion and critical race theory. Parents must also assume responsibility for what their children are doing and learning. A child in elementary school doesn’t need a smartphone.

The Toronto Catholic District School Board alone could save hundreds of thousands of dollars just by scrapping the toxic DIE, diversity, inclusion and equity, department. The same is true for the other boards. It’s just a matter of spending the educational tax dollar more efficiently. What about the money allocated to serve a minority of students in so called “special” programs? And did not the boards shut down for months in person student learning and created the Zoom and Google classroom?

There are too many people in the school system who get generous salaries and benefits but don’t teach a single child. This puts added stress on teachers because it results in larger classes for those who actually do teach students every day in the classroom. We won’t even talk about the tens of millions of tax dollars to maintain corrupt teachers unions that add nothing to student learning. Why not scrap them? Now, that’s a worthwhile lawsuit.

The court case is a great distraction from the mediocre job that public education offers students. It wasn’t the big media companies that introduced a radical sex-curriculum in the classroom. It was the Ministry of Education and the school boards went along with it. Schools are now teaching that a boy or a girl can be trapped in the wrong body and that there are numerous genders. Race determines academic and societal success. The classroom has become a place for student sexual and racial indoctrination.   

The confusion and fear created by comprehensive sex-curriculum hurts student learning. Some students are changing their names, taking hormone blocking drugs and even having surgery believing they can change their sex. Any adult in his right mind can see that this can have a serious harmful effect on the school environment and student academic success. All driven by the school curriculum not the big social media companies.  

This lawsuit is just a way of diverting attention from a corrupt and ineffective public school system. It will be difficult to win against these large social media companies. But even if the boards win the court case, it will not improve student learning. The past has shown that more money is not the answer to a dysfunctional and failing public school system. One thing is certain: the lawsuit will make millions of dollars for the lawyers working both sides of the case. And the big loser will be the tax payer who ultimately foots the boards’ costs.

Lou Iacobelli