Victory! Montera/Skyline transit lines restored!
On May 10, 2017, Genesis celebrated a great victory. After months of advocacy with our allies, the Genesis Free Youth Bus Pass Task were proud to announce that AC Transit and Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) has worked out a 1 year plan to restore the transit lines to Montera Middle School and Skyline High School.
What this victory represents:
Genesis exists with the mission to make sure that the People’s voice is heard by decision makers. This was evident during the May 4th meeting where our youth joined with community leaders, students/families from the schools, labor leaders and elected officials in favor of restoring the transit lines. Audrey, our Genesis Youth Intern from St. John’s, did a great job asking, “Council Members Gallo and Kaplan, what are you going to do to solve this problem?”
Pope Francis has asked us, “Who is that other whom we are to love as we love ourselves?” This issue gave us the opportunity to demonstrate solidarity. We remember Devon, Genesis Youth Intern and graduate of Skyline High School, who states, “I would not have been able to go to school without those transit lines.”
Many stated that if there was equity amongst the public schools (Montera and Skyline are perceived as being superior to other OUSD schools in the “flatlands”), the issue of transit would not be so crucial. In addition to this, Genesis believes that the lack of mandated home-to-school transportation to general education students in California is a great injustice that we aim to dismantle. The Montera/Skyline issue is just a symptom of a greater problem of the lack of education equity that exists in our community.
Genesis aims to monitor and pressure officials to find a permanent solution for this issue and beyond. Thank you to all our supporters who called, rooted for us and stood by us during this fight.
Read the SF Chronicle's coverage here
