Board hires counsel to sue Meta, TikTok, Snap and YouTube

What happened

On September 15, 2026 the board adopted a resolution retaining the Law Office of Robert King and Motley Rice as special litigation counsel to investigate and, if warranted, pursue claims against Meta Platforms and Instagram, ByteDance and TikTok, Snap and Google and YouTube. The resolution ties the district into the coordinated national case In re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 3047 in the Northern District of California, in which school districts including others in New Jersey have brought claims. The stated basis is the staff time and money Westfield spends on student social media use: counselling and student support services, administrative and disciplinary matters, cyberbullying and harassment, and other student safety and wellness work. The engagement is on a contingency-fee basis with no upfront cost, and the resolution expressly says nothing in it obligates the district to spend money absent a recovery. Legal services were procured as professional services without public bidding under N.J.S.A. 18A:18A-5(a)(1).

Why it matters to families

A school board deciding to sue the companies whose products its students use every day is a significant governance step, and it is the same board that has just banned those products from school grounds bell to bell. Because the retainer is contingency-only, the immediate financial exposure is limited, but the district is now a litigant against named defendants, and any recovery would come back to the district rather than to families. It also puts on the record what the district says social media is costing it in counselling, discipline and safety work.

The evidence

The September 15, 2026 agenda carries Finance and Facilities item H, the resolution authorising retention of special litigation counsel to investigate and pursue claims against social media companies. It names Meta Platforms, Inc., Instagram LLC, ByteDance Ltd. and TikTok Inc., Snap Inc. and Google LLC/YouTube LLC; cites MDL No. 3047 in the Northern District of California; recites the district's counselling, disciplinary, cyberbullying and student safety costs; retains the Law Office of Robert King, PLLC and Motley Rice LLC on a contingency-fee basis at no upfront cost or financial risk; and relies on the professional services exception in N.J.S.A. 18A:18A-5(a)(1). Minutes for the September 15, 2026 meeting had not yet been approved when this record was collected, so the agenda resolution is the source.

The source