The Butler County Area Vocational-Technical School joint operating committee has joined a class-action lawsuit against social media companies, including Meta Platforms, Facebook Holdings, Snap, TikTok, YouTube and others.

Regina Hiler, executive director of the vo-tech school, said the “students’ mental health is the center of this lawsuit.

“Recent research has shown that social media has negative effects on mental health,” Hiler said, “including increased anxiety, depression, loneliness, thoughts of self-harm and suicide, fear of missing out, cyberbullying … and the list goes on.”

The lawsuit maintains that accessibility to these applications, as well as increasing exposure to negative content on them, has had a direct effect on students’ mental health over the years, said Mark Gross, superintendent of Mars Area School District.

There is no cost for the district to participate in the lawsuit.

In other business, the committee also appointed Nina Teff, a member of the Butler Area School District school board, to serve as board treasurer, after the resignation of former treasurer Bill Halle.

Hiler said the vote to appoint Teff to the position was unanimous.