We are classes 606 and 607 from I.S. 77 in Ridgewood, Queens. We are eleven-year-olds who mostly identify as Hispanic and Asian. We chose to address subway surfing because a student in our eighth grade tragically lost their life in October 2024 due to this dangerous activity. Our Queens neighborhood has two elevated train lines (the M and L) and several boxcar trains, which create an environment where subway surfing is possible. We need your help to protect our community, because our after-school budget was cut, and our research shows that subway surfers are typically males between the ages of 11 and 17, engaging in this activity most often after school, between 2:00 and 5:00 p.m. 

The following actions could help save us from subway surfing:

1.Vote to support bills, laws and campaigns to end subway surfing.

2. Request that open gangway train cars be used on the subway lines with the highest injuries and deaths from subway surfing. (our research says, "the open gangway cars prevent subway surfing, as subway surfers can no longer climb between cars to reach the train's roof, as was possible on older trains and the R211As."

3. The Sixth graders in our school did not receive a presentation the seventh and eighth grades had on the dangers of subway surfing in December of 2024. Please help make this presentation possible.