story20850.xml

story20850.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2006-09-12

I was in my sixth grade classroom when I learned about the attack. I remember that other teachers came running into my class, telling my teacher to turn on the television. A female teacher explained to my teacher that the rest of the students in the school were not being told what was happening, I assume because they were deemed too young. They were, however, told that a crisis was occuring. We switched to the news to see the swath of smoke coming from the first tower. Then, in utter silence and shock, we watched the second plane careen into the other tower. Some of the kids uttered remarks of astonishment, but most of us were silent. I remember my teacher kept saying "this is terrible.... oh, this is terrible." No one could concentrate on school after that, so my teacher ignored his schedule for that day and we began to discuss the events. Every class was called down to the cafeteria, and I remember that all the others student were very confused, having no idea what was going on. My class was the only class who knew and we were instructed to keep quiet. A while later teachers walked around the room and asked every table of students if anyone's parents worked in the Pentagon. Seeing as to the previous events, it wasn't hard to guess how the Pentagon was involved. Some of the kids who had parents who worked in the Pentagon got very upset, now realizing what it meant. My father works in DC, and I was a little bit worried, but was relatively confident that his building was far enough away, assuming that the Pentagon was the only building attacked in DC. The teachers tried to get us to continue the day as normal, but the air of calm that usually surrounded their authority was broken. We were not allowed outside for recess, and all after school activities were cancelled. At the end of the day, instead of waiting in front of the school for buses as usual, students were made to stay inside until their bus came. At home, I learned that my soccer practice was canceled. The rest of the day is a blur, so many people saying so many things, so much emotion...