story5636.xml

story5636.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

At approximately 9:30am on Sept. 11, 2001, the assistant principal made a rare all call announcement to turn CNN on in our classrooms. As I rushed to turn on the television, I was wondering what could possibly be happening that would warrent this announcement. I soon found myself dumbstruck with what I saw. What a struggle it was to maintain my composure in front of my classroom of disbelieving students. One student spoke out and broke the silence, "This is just a movie, right Ms. Jurk?" "I wish it were Michael." He was the one child able to ask what we all were hoping was true. He didn't seem to believe me when I told him that what he was watching was real and history in the making. For the next half hour, my students and I watched, horrified, as the scenes of the two planes hitting the World Trade Center. When the bell rang and my students moved on to their next class, I rushed to the office to get permission to make the long distance calls I needed to make to find out if my friends and family were a part of attack on the Pentagon. There are no words to express how I felt when I found out my loved ones were safe and sound. And then, the towers fell. What an awesome sight. Two skyscrapers, 110 stories fell. I could only imagine what it was like to be there. I fell into a chair completely at a loss. I had no idea what to do or say, except to say a prayer for those who had lost their lives and for those who were beginning a LONG journey to search, rescue, and clean up the mess of some fanatical lunatics.

Throughout the rest of the day, my students and I continued to watch CNN. There I sat, a 25 year old, middle school special education teacher, dumbstruck again at how difficult it was to understand what was happening.
Who were these people flying airplanes into our lives? Who would give up their own life to take so many innocent lives? Who could take these lives and leave so many others behind alone and confused?
While these questions have been answered over the last year, I still struggle to understand how their minds could have become so warped that they felt it necessary to kill so many innocent people.

As we recalled the events of one year ago, my students remain strangely unaffected. There is little which can be done to change their opinions. I only hope time will soften their minds and hearts and that they will realize what has happened.