An 11-year-old boy was told he could not board a BART train in Oakland, California because he was forty cents short. Sebastian Ocampo was trying to return to his home in the Richmond District in San Francisco but his Clipper Card, which is used to buy train tickets, did not have enough money on it.
"They were like, 'Oh you can’t go because you don’t have 40 cents; you have to have more money to go in,'" Sebastian told KNTV. "I didn’t have no money, no nothing, everything was in my Clipper Card."
He pleaded with the agent, who refused to budge and had the young boy escorted out of the station. Sebastian called his mother and said that he was worried that somebody might hurt him as he tried to figure out how to get home.
A BART official said that the employee at the station was wrong to deny Sebastian from boarding the train over such a small amount of money. Instead, she said the employee should have given him a pay voucher and let him ride the train.
"A pay voucher that says you owe us 40 cents and then continue on your trip," BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said. "We don’t want anyone being kicked out, especially an 11-year old. That’s not what we are here to do."
She said that the employee responsible will face disciplinary actions for not following the proper protocols. That isn't enough for Sebastian's mother who believes that the employee should be fired.
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