Memories of 9/11: staff members share tragic accounts

Abe

“It’s one of those moments you never forget,” World History and U.S. Government teacher Kirk Abe said. ”I don’t know what I was doing the day before or the day after, but I will always remember exactly where I was and what I was doing that day.”

Abe was getting ready to leave to teach his class, on Sept. 11, 2001, when he turned on the television. “The first thing I saw was the first twin tower being hit,” Abe said. “Every channel was filled with scenes of the incident.”

9/11 had a huge impact on how life is today. It started the longest war in America’s history, defined current foreign policies and created numerous other issues.

Citizens all over the country were affected by the lives lost.

“It was very devastating to the families that lost relatives in the 9/11 attack,” Abe said. ”It was a terribly sad day.”

Soldiers were sent to parts of Afghanistan to hunt down Osama Bin Laden as a response to 9/11. Additionally, suppressing terrorism stretched national resources thin.

“Some federal issues, such as the government deficit, can be traced back to 9/11,” Abe said. “It forced the U.S. to spend more on national defense and to send troops to Afghanistan.”

Even with all the trauma and pain caused by 9/11, Abe believes there were a few positive aspects of it. Cars rolled by streets with American flags proudly displayed on the sides.

“Our country was more united than ever,” Abe said. “There was a strong sense of patriotism everywhere.”

Now that 10 years have passed since 9/11, the world is starting to move on. Abe, however, feels that the United States should never forget about the incident.

“Even during the event I knew I was living through something pivotal. Something that was going to change the fabric of the nation,” Abe said.

Anderson

“For most people, 9/11 was just a televised event. But for me, and the rest of the people in Manhattan at the time, it was a big part of my life.”

Anderson was an assistant principal at Hunter High School in Manhattan during 9/11. He was faced with the problem of ensuring that the 1,500 kids in his school got home, a daunting task given that all modes of transportation were completely backed up.

“Our main goal was to keep the kids safe and somehow get them home,” Anderson said.

Hunter is a school for the gifted and talented, meaning that many of Anderson’s students lived far from the school. It is located about 5 miles from the World Trade Center, two blocks from Central Park in nortern Manhattan.

Anderson ended up sending kids home with each other, making sure each student had a place to stay for the night.

“We ended up holding lots of the students in our big theatre,” Anderson said. “There was a big TV set up inside so everyone could watch the events as they were happening.”

“The phones were ringing endlessly, due to concerned parents asking if their children are safe. “It was pretty chaotic,” Anderson said, “but we kept the situation under control pretty well.”

Everyone was unsure whether the first plane crash was intentional or not. However, after the second tower was hit, it became certain that the event was no accident.

Thousands of people in Manhattan during the incident were going north, away from the dangerous Ground Zero. “If you looked out the window,” Anderson said, “you would see an enormous mob of people covering the streets.”

The city became polluted with the debris and smoke produced during the crash, affecting the city for years after.

Remarkably, neither Anderson nor any of his students were personally connected to anyone involved in the incident.

“I was surprised that we were all so fortunate,” Anderson said.

By sheer fortune, Anderson had recently moved. Before, he had been living much closer to Ground Zero. “My daughter would have been going to school only two blocks away from the World Trade Center,” Anderson said.

“I felt really lucky,” Anderson said. “Not only was my family safe, but the students and faculty at my high school had survived as well.”

Anderson

Principal Jeff Anderson shared a tragic story about how one of his wife’s coworkers died when the building collapsed.

“The day before 9/11 he showed up to a meeting in the World Trade Center late,” Anderson said, “and was subsequently chewed out by his boss. The next day, he obediently showed up early for his meeting. Because of this, he ended up getting trapped in the building and died when it collapsed. His boss felt terrible, surviving because she was running late due to the congestion caused by 9/11.”

Scott

World History and US History Teacher Jeffrey Scott was 17 at the time. Even though he was older than the current students were, he still did not fully grasp the situation at the time.

“My mom woke me up and told me a plane hit one of the twin towers,” said Scott. “I still didn’t really know what was happening.”

“That day the whole school was really tense,” Scott said. “No one was sure what to do.”

In his first period Scott’s German teacher ran class as if nothing happened. However, all the rest of my teachers had us watch the news.

“It took days for the school return back to normal again,” Scott said. The event had a pretty lasting effect on the country, not being forgotten within a few days.

“The event was all over the news,” Scott said. “No other news ran for about threemonths.”

“This was one of the infamous events in our history,” Scott said. “It’s one of those events that defines a generation, similar to the Kennedy assassination.”