Gang members, drug addicts, criminals, racists, and assailants. These are the people that a 15-year-old, five-foot-and-four inch, 110-pound boy has to sit by on the bus from early mornings just to get to where he needs to go on time to late afternoons on the long drive back home.
Most of my family members don’t care much about me; my mom and grandparents are the only ones who do. My mom works a lot, so I’m responsible for getting to work, school, and other extracurricular activities; and so I have to ride the public bus.
These bus rides are the scariest things this boy has to go through. He has no one to lean on, so when trouble comes his way he just hopes he makes it out alive.
I have been riding public transport, also known as the Regional Transportation District (RTD) for the last 4 years of my life, and it has been the scariest experience ever. It’s so bad that I wouldn’t even wish it on my worst enemy. I’ve been harassed, cussed out, and called slurs for no reason. Offered drugs by grown adults, and had grown men say they wanted to do sexual things to me, all on public transport.
Whenever I called my family for help when I was scared, they didn’t answer. My friends were even worse. For 6 hours of the day, I was alone, and I’m now stuck with mental scars of stuff I endured just to get home.
One night that I’ll never forget was the time I was at a Creek football game. My friends left me there, knowing I had no ride back home, while they said they would take me back. That night, I left the football game at 9 p.m. and got on the bus to head over to my grandma’s house.
It wasn’t long until a grown man started talking to me, and he wouldn’t leave me alone. I got off the bus and I decided to walk home, which was a 4-hour walk, in the dark. As soon as I got off the bus, he started to follow me, and kept trying to talk to me about things a grown man shouldn’t talk to a kid about.
When I try to voice my feelings about how scared I am of riding the bus late at night, older people always say “oh back in my day, I was riding the bus until the middle of the night and I was okay,” or “You’re a boy you need to man up.” But the world has changed a lot since then, and even if I had a way to protect myself it still wouldn’t be enough for me to feel safe.
RTD should have ways for everyone, not just kids, to be able to ride the bus safely. Most bus drivers either don’t care or don’t pay attention to what’s happening inside the bus; they just focus on the road. This goes for grown adults on the bus who see these things happening too.
If the RTD had the budget and people to have a police officer or some type of security on the bus it would make sure horrible things don’t happen as often, then more people would ride the bus. They also need to be more strict on allowing certain people on the bus; I’ve seen dozens of blackout-drunk people get on the bus with a bottle in hand and do things, things that in a normal place would get them kicked out immediately.
Most people don’t realize how nice it is to be able to have someone drop them off where they need to go, they take it for granted. But if they’d have to relive these scary interactions I have every day, they’d be grateful.
