Daeun Kim demands free bus fare for Staten Island students

 

 

PP Cherian

New York: Daeun Kim, a 17-year-old student from Staten Island, New York, has come out with a demand to make school fare to Manhattan free. She made the request on Instagram after her letters to Mayor Sohran Mamdani went unanswered.

While regular public transportation is free, the express buses that Staten Island students rely on are not exempted. The huge cost: Kim says her parents have had to pay $18,270 in bus fares just to get her and her brother to school over the past four years.

Kim explains that her Korean immigrant parents work hard for their education and that the intervention came after she saw the hardships of her mother, who works as a nail polisher. Huge support: This video, shared on Instagram, has already been viewed by millions of people.

But there has been no response from the mayor's office on the matter. After school, Kim wants to study psychology at Cornell University and start an art therapy foundation for immigrants.