I don’t have too much editorializing to add to the story featured on the front page of The Times today other than to say check it out. Kirk Semple relates the tale of a 13-year-old boy with Asperger’s Syndrome who ran away from home and spent 11 days riding the D, F and 1 trains. Despite widespread efforts by police and the child’s parents to find him, it took nearly two weeks for an officer to recognize the boy as he sat in a D train at Stillwell Ave. on Coney Island. It’s easy to forget how busy and how crowded the subways are, and this harrowing tale with a happy ending reminds us of the magnitude of New York’s subway system.
Riding the rails, alone, for 11 days
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I remember reading up a few years back that some guy died on the 1 train and nobody noticed him for 2 trips.It took that one cop to be alert and figure out in regards to that kid that something didn’t add up.While this kid was riding for nearly 2 weeks,nobody noticed his clothes,kemptness,and being on a train alone at 3:AM reminds me of an old saying “Nobody cares what happens,so long as it doesn’t happen to themselves” think about it.
Another way to look at is this:
A 13-year old with a mental handicap was able to navigate the subway system for two weeks without incident.
Would that same 13 year old have been as safe on a street?
The thing about Asperger’s is that they’re not really mentally handicapped–but they do have great difficulty in social situations that we take for granted. Thus we have a poor kid who rides the rails for 11 days rather than confront his mom about problems at school. I have a brother with this condition. He’s perfectly capable of taking care of himself but social situations are often awkward. Anyway, thank god for a happy ending to this tale.
This was a (bottom of the) front page story in the New York Times on Tuesday, November 24. The New York Times at that point had nothing on the subway killing and didn’t until Friday when it revealed that a 30-year photography student had taken some 120 pictures. Four of her pictures were printede in the paper. The Daily News did not catcvh up with the boy in the subwasy story until Werdnesday when they ran a story on the bottom of page 12. The 13 year old boy was in the system from Thursday afternoon October 15, 2009 when he got on at Bay Parkway and 86 Street eight blocks from hisd school,(he only had to go one stop toward his home near 25th Avenue) and removed his cell phone batteries, until Monday October 26, 2009 (hour unknown) when a policeman saw him sitting in a car at Stillwell Avenue. He rode the D and the F and the number 1 train. He started out with $10 in his pocket and bought potato chips, croissants ad jelly rolls and drank bottled water and used the bathroom at the Stillwell Avenue station. He was down to 30 cents by the time he was found.
This is not the first time he hid on the subway but theh first time it was only for five hours and then he went home.
He had failed to complete an assignment for hsi 8th grade class and was scolded for not concentrating. When he telephoned his mother after school saying he wass coming home she told him the school had called and she wanted a serious talk with him. So he didn’t go home.