Article about petition: https://gvwire.com/2022/08/05/cellphone-ban-at-bullard-high-sparks-brouhaha-and-online-petition/

Last school year, there were a number of hateful incidents that occurred at Bullard High School in Fresno, CA. Most were racially charged in some way. All evidence of those incidents were gathered via cellphone- social media posts, photos, videos, et cetera. The principal of Bullard High School made an announcement in the early summer of 2022 announcing an upcoming phone ban for the 2022/2023 school year. The ban will be implemented in the second half of the school year. He vehemently stated that the phone ban "was not a cover up", but rather an attempt at "making our school a phone-free place to improve teaching and learning." The students of Bullard high didn't believe a word he said. They believe the phone ban is something entirely different than an enriched learning experience. They believe that Bullard is silencing student voices in order to more efficiently sweep any and all incidents under its ever-expanding rug. Bullard has a history of racial incidents, but they've never seen any reason to change their routine of hiding them until they realized the world was watching them through a cellphone camera. The BHS students are taking a stand. They demand a change, because they deserve to be heard. A cellphone ban isn't what they have in mind, either. They want supportive staff who understand their struggles, not staff that will actively ignore their problems. They want their principal and the entire district to take them and their experiences seriously, and look into them rather than just making empty promises. But instead of asking for the students opinions, Mr. Torigian decided to ban the thing that validates students' experiences using pictures, videos, and audio: their cellphones. Bullard High School has a problem, and it's not the phones. We all know it, and it's time to address it. If we get enough signatures on this petition, hopefully the school and the district will know that we are 100% serious about having our voices heard.