Rio Rancho schools join lawsuit over social media’s mental-health impact

Rio Rancho Public Schools has stepped into a national court battle over who should pay for the mental-health fallout school leaders say social media has helped create, a move that could bring new counseling resources or leave Sandoval County taxpayers tied to years of uncertain litigation. The district paid a $405 filing fee and asked for a jury trial when it filed a short-form complaint April 24 in federal court.

The filing, Rio Rancho Public Schools District v. Meta Platforms, Inc. et al., lets the district join a larger multidistrict case without starting from scratch. It names 15 defendants tied to Meta, ByteDance and TikTok, Snap and Google and YouTube, including Meta Platforms, Instagram, Facebook Payments, Facebook Operations, Facebook Holdings, Meta Payments, ByteDance Ltd., ByteDance Inc., TikTok Ltd., TikTok LLC, TikTok, Inc., Snap, Inc., Google, LLC and YouTube, LLC. Austin P. Brane is listed as the district’s attorney.

RRPS did not spell out a dollar amount in damages or identify specific remedies in its complaint, but the broader litigation seeks punitive, compensatory and statutory damages, along with mental-health counseling resources for youth allegedly harmed by social media use. In a prepared statement, School Board President Amanda Galbraith said the district could not discuss pending litigation in detail, but she said the decision to join the case was made with students’ well-being in mind and that those responsible should be held accountable.

The case is part of In re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation, a massive proceeding overseen by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland. Her court has already set bellwether trials for June 15, a step meant to test how the claims may play out before juries and help shape the path of the broader case.

Rio Rancho is not alone in Sandoval County. Bernalillo Public Schools joined the same litigation in July 2025 as part of a coalition of more than 200 school districts, signaling that local school systems are trying to push the costs of student harm back onto the companies they say fueled it.

The lawsuit lands as New Mexico courts have already shown a willingness to scrutinize Big Tech. On March 25, a Santa Fe jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million to the state in a separate consumer-protection case over teen safety and sexual exploitation claims. Attorney General Raúl Torrez called that verdict a historic victory for children and families, while Meta said it disagreed and would appeal. For Rio Rancho and other districts, that outcome raises the stakes: the fight could bring resources for students, or it could become another expensive legal battle with no immediate relief in classrooms.