The Seattle Youth Commission released a video yesterday supporting Proposition 1 and explaining how the impending bus cuts will affect teenagers—something I hadn't thought too much about, because I got too fuckin' old and now I'm a big old jerk grandma who forgets about young people sometimes. (Sorry, teens! I always swore I wouldn't be like this.)

There are a ton of high schoolers who almost exclusively bus commute to school, and funding cuts to school districts have meant less yellow-bus service and more teens on Metro. When I was going to high school in Seattle 100 million years ago, we had no school buses at all at my small alternative school; everyone had to use Metro or get a ride. (On a dinosaur! Yuk-yuk.) Changing or cutting bus routes that students rely on will seriously impact their lives—something you adults with easy access to cars and/or the money to take cars/rideshares/Car2Go might not remember.

Anyway, here's the youth commission's simple but effective video, edited by Chief Sealth student Sam Orlin and narrated by Roosevelt student Sean Fox:

Breaking down the affected bus routes by which high schools they serve, so that this is useful for students as well as generally informative, was a smart choice, as is that breakdown of which state lawmakers to contact about public transit funding. They say they're sending it to schools throughout the district and hoping it'll be shown in American Government classes. Good work, Seattle Youth Commission!

So bus cuts will also hurt high-school students who get around on the bus—just another reason to vote YES on Proposition 1, and/or to head over to the Parliament ballot party tomorrow at Chop Suey, which is free and all-ages, because the Washington Bus are the kind of non-dickish grownups who don't forget about young people. YAY!