During a normal school week, 60,000 SEPTA transpasses are distributed to students so they can get to and from school using any public bus, trolley, or subway for free while neighboring school Districts hire yellow-bus companies to transport their students. Do you feel safe using SEPTA to get to school? Here are what your peers are saying.
Shirley Ha is a sophomore at Carver High School:
I don't feel safe leaving my house, let alone using SEPTA. The increased racism and discrimination against Asian Americans are higher than ever now, and I've seen plenty of people who are high schoolers, just like me, being attacked or mocked at at random. You would think that you'd be safe in a public space but that isn't true at all. Despite the pandemic going on right now, I fear being attacked at random more than that.
Yaelies Terron is a junior at Carver High School:
Public transportation, to me, has been something that always seems very unsanitary because it is open to the public and not everyone is clean. For instance, when I was taking the train before COVID-19, I would see people spitting in the train or even the smell of urine. These things aren't sanitary and during times like this, that we have to be as sanitary as possible, I don't feel like it's safe to use SEPTA for transportation. We can try to be as sanitary as possible individually but that doesn't mean that there isn't a possibility we won't get COVID-19.
The following students have opted to remain anonymous.
A sophomore at Kensington High School:
Yes I do feel safe.
A junior at Carver High School:
While taking SEPTA as a way of transportation for school, it is very unsafe for myself and other students. Many of us comes from low-income homes with a higher risk of being endangered. For example, getting sexually assaulted, harassed, and/or bullied. We have to make sure we are taking caution of our surroundings because this world is very cruel. Taking SEPTA endangers the youth because the old adults are capable of any criminal/dangerous act.
Anonymous student:
No, because that’s a public bus and you don't know who is there.
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A junior at Parkway Center City:
I've always felt safe taking SEPTA to and from school mainly because I was always with a friend going to school and going home. I didn't start taking SEPTA that much until I got into high school because before then I was always getting dropped off and picked up so it was definitely a transition for me. But as I stated before I was always with a friend so that always made me feel better. The rides back home from school were always the best to me because around that time me and my friends had this one SEPTA bus driver every time after school and he was the sweetest and funniest old man ever and he made the ride home for me and my friends much more enjoyable and we always called him grandpa because he was our SEPTA driver since we started 9th grade so he pretty much seen us everyday since then.
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