Good morning, Supporters!

8 Weeks in and we stand at 298 Signatures, I can't thank you enough! If you know anyone against this policy who wants change, it would be appreciated if we could share this petition with them.

This will be more of a general update with announcements:

To my knowledge, the school board has not publicly acknowledged the petition in any way, the media has however: including the school news itself. I have full confidence my name and message is out there and in their minds.

On October 13th, 2025. The BHS News Paper, Called the “Branford Buzz” Mentioned me, by name, and quoted the petition;

“Some students remarked they noticed significant pushback from many BHS students, bringing up a petition started by sophomore Matt Kazzi that received almost 300 signatures.”
-Branford Buzz.

In this same article, the reporters talked about a recent visit to Branford High by NHK World Japan, an International News Source In Japan. This is the reason we are publishing this update.

Students and faculty spoke on how they felt, with the students only naming one good thing they have seen since the ban, these opinions were voiced to Associate Producer Sarah Aoyagi of NHK.

“Aoyagi also brought up the issue of safety in light of America’s reputation for school shootings, and whether students felt safe in the event of an emergency without a cell phone.”
-Branford Buzz.

The main concern has always been safety, and always will be, safety and privacy will always be the 2 largest subjects regarding minors. students voiced how they feel less safe not having immediate contact to their families, especially in  the recent school shootings that have happened in Minnesota, as well as the 2012 Sandy Hook Shooting, the voice on this was that phones can “prevent the shootings” which i'm sure many people disagree with.

The pro that has come from all this, is that there is more socializing between students, though I have seen more verbal arguments break out due to the sole fact that phones helped distract you, what people fail to realize is that phones can distract people for a good reason, phones are not only a negative distraction, they are a positive distraction far more than they negatively distract students.

That will be all for today, thank you for the support, it truly means the world to me.
-Matt Kazzi