CHAMPION — The Champion Local School District has filed a civil complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio against Roblox Corporation, Microsoft Corporation and Mojang AB, alleging that the companies’ video game products are harmful to students and contributing to “a deepening mental health crisis” among children.

The complaint, which was filed over the weekend, alleges that the companies intentionally designed their video game products with psychological techniques to make them addictive to children in order to profit from children’s video game play. In the complaint, the school district named Minecraft, Roblox and Microsoft’s Xbox system, which includes Xbox Live software, as being the issue. Roblox is the creator of Minecraft and the Xbox.

The school district is asking for a trial by jury, as well as damages, court costs and attorneys’ fees. No specific dollar amount is listed in the lawsuit

According to the civil complaint, the companies use “operant conditioning,” a type of psychological treatment that provides rewards to increase a behavior.

The complaint alleges that students are experiencing increased anxiety and depression, declining grades, chronic absenteeism and other issues as a result. The school district also stated that it has had to hire counselors and other professionals to “address video game addiction,” as well as try to prevent video game use during school.

The suit indicates Champion schools has already diverted limited resources to address “the mental health crisis” caused to students in an effort to mitigate and address some of those harms.

“Defendants’ video games formed a gateway to video game addiction and left school districts, which are on the front lines of the many challenges facing America’s youth, with the dauntless task of responding to the crisis of video game addiction,” the complaint states.

The lawsuit alleges the companies also marketed their video game products as educational and beneficial to the STEM curriculum and allowed students younger than the advertised age limit for their products to play.

The complaint aims to hold the companies accountable for using “behavioral modification systems” without giving a warning to schools or communities, noting that the matter affects school districts in states all across the country.

When asked about the lawsuit at Monday’s Champion school board meeting, Superintendent John Grabowski said he had “no statement at this time.”

SCHOOL FINANCE CONCERNS

At the board meeting, Grabowski and Treasurer Laurena Rouan discussed what they have done to manage the district’s budget and stay in line with district spending.

Grabowski said he, Rouan and Board President John Pitts, as well as other school district officials, attended a recent county commissioners meeting about concerns with proposed property tax changes and passage of state bills that negatively affect schools.

He said while there needs to be some reform with property tax, it should not fall on the property owners.

Grabowski said years ago, 30% of school funding came from property taxes and now it is at 70%.

He said over time, the school district has worked to make sure money was being spent effectively and asked for passage of school levies to help the district operate.

“We only asked for what we needed, not what we wanted. We watched our funds in the general fund and made sure we kept our high school in good working order,” Grabowski said.

The district constructed a new K-8 school building and made improvements to the high school.

Grabowski said those improvements included a new roof, new boilers, upgraded parking lot and new security cameras,

“The high school is in good working order because of the decisions that we have made. Our maintenance staff has done a lot of work to make sure that the building remains in good shape,” he said.

Grabowski said a new high school would cost $50 million. He said plans are to host upcoming community finance meetings with the public to share where the school district stands financially.

Rouan made a presentation on the district’s five-year forecast and how property tax changes affect the school district. She said it is important that the public be aware of what will happen to schools by abolishing property taxes.

“People need to be educated on what such a decision will create,” Rouan said.

She said the forecast will be affected by any property tax reform, with school districts relying more on local funding and less on state funding.

Rouan said in 2022, the state provided 53% of the costs to educate students and by 2029 that will change to 31%, which marks a 20% drop.

She said also having an effect on district finances is a decrease in enrollment, with Champion having 135 students less than there were five years ago. Rouan said the district would need 94 additional students next year to get the district close to what its finances previously were with a higher student enrollment.

Rouan said previously financial carryover from one year to the next was $2 million, but with property tax reform the carryovers will not be that high anymore. She said the district has been spending wisely and revamped the heating and air conditioning at the high school and the stadium lights were upgraded to LED, noting no levy was needed for these upgrades.