As a Harding High School student living 1.99 miles from school, I was fortunate to receive a free city bus pass. While appreciated, it can't be denied that the system is flawed. Each month, free bus passes are issued to students living two or more miles away. But supplies are limited, and many students who also depend on them miss out.

Take my best friend, for example. He lives 1.45 miles from school, just shy of qualifying for a pass. As a result, he has to walk nearly two miles to school every morning, and the same distance back in the afternoon. He is not alone in this predicament. Over 200 Harding students find themselves carrying this undue burden due to the distance and availability limitations.

We propose that Harding High School allows for the usage of yellow school buses. These dedicated buses, long symbolizing the safe and reliable transport of students across the country, would address the issues we face. It would especially benefit those like my friend who currently fall through the cracks of the system.

In comparison Central High School, a school 2.7 miles away from Harding has had a yellow bus system in place for its students for a long time. Recently Siddharth Krishnan, a student at University High School of Science & Engineering in Hartford advocated along with 12 other students to the state house to pass a bill allocating $175,000 each to New Haven and Hartford school districts to use for free bus fares. Safe, reliable, and equitable transportation should not be an impossibility; it should be a right. 

Help us ensure that all students at Harding High School, regardless of their distance from the school, can have a safe, equitable, and reliable way to get to and from our place of learning. Please join us as we call for the provision of yellow school buses for Harding High School. Sign this petition today.