1000 NYC High School Students Walk Out Of Class In Protest Of Proposed MetroCard Elimination

About 1,000 New York City high school students walked out of class Friday and rallied near City Hall to protest a plan to eliminate their free transit passes.

The students walked out of schools around the city at noon and converged at City Hall Park, where they chanted "Save our MetroCards!" and "This is what democracy looks like."

The protest comes a day after Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a stepped-up effort to fight truancy.

Fernando Matos, 17, a student at Samuel Gompers High School in the Bronx, said that without a free transit pass he would have to transfer to a different school.

"I do not want to go to a local high school," Matos said. "It doesn't have the classes I need."

More than 500,000 city students receive free or reduced-fare MetroCards to get to and from school.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has proposed ending the free rides as part of its effort to close an $800 million budget gap.

Without the free passes, families would be forced to buy monthly MetroCards at a cost of about $1,000 a year per child.

City Council member Letitia James of Brooklyn told the rally, "Mr. Bloomberg, you just don't seem to get it. This is a lesson about civics, Mr. Bloomberg. This is learning."

Sharon Litaker, a special education teacher at Banana Kelly High School in the Bronx, attended the rally to support her students.

"I just walked out," she said. "A lot of families lost their jobs. They don't have the extra income to pay for their children's MetroCards."

A spokesman for the Department of Education said that any disciplinary action the students might face for cutting class would be up to their principals.

Protesters planned to march across the Brooklyn Bridge later Friday for a second rally at a transit facility.

Source: ThisIs50