story7024.xml

story7024.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-13

I was the principal of Anchor Bay Middle School. Anchor Bay is located in New Baltimore, Michigan. We are about located about 24 miles north of Detroit. We have one of the largest Military base housing units located in our School district and Selfridge Air National Guard Base is near by. I can remember walking into the main office of my school and one of the secretaries saying that they had heard that something terrible had happened to one of the trade towers in New York City. I immediately went to the library were we have a T.V. in an office to turn on the news. I went to this office and watched the T.V. because it was private and no one else would see it. What I saw and heard was a replay of the first plane hitting the trade center. As a principal responsible for 950 8th and 9th grade students and a staff of about 70 employees I had to think of how I was going to handle this situation. I had one of my office staff members continue to watch the private television set so she could update me on what was happening. I had a secretary call our central administration office to let them know what was going on. I and my security person went to every class room and told the teachers privately what we knew and to answer any questions that the students might have. I also told them not to watch the television set in their classrooms. I told the teachers that we had a room that was secure and that they could watch that television on their prep time or the could stay in their rooms and watch the news if they locked their door. My fear was that more terrorist activity might take place including another attack with a plane and I did not want to let the students see it at this time. I figured that it was best for their parents to help them through this. Each day many students come to school late from doctors or dentist appointments. Many of these students had listened to radio reports of what was happening. It did not take long for students getting to school late to tell their classmates what was happening. That is why I needed to keep my teaching staff and other adults up to date on what was going on. They could then answer the students questions and help them not to be afraid. I knew that I was going to have to make a P.A. announcement to all the staff and students before the end of the school day. I stressed to teachers to have as normal of day with the students as possible. I put the school in a lock down situation. That means that every entrance door to the school is locked. I posted my liason police officer at the main entrance. I expected many parents to come to school and either pick their child up or to see how they were doing. Many military parents came to school to pick up their children because they knew that if they didn't that base security was going to be very tight. We check everyones Identification at the door. Most people thank us for being so careful. Many parents talked to their child and they left them to be with their friend at school. I thought this day was never going to end. I went into a teachers room while she was on her prep time and she was almost crying. She pointed at the television moniter and said a second plane had just ran into the other trade tower and she had seen it live. She now understood why I had chosen not to allow students to watch the televisions in the classrooms. Our High School allowed the teachers to let students watch the television in the classrooms because they were older. Many students became very upset and they had a tough time at the building. Our elementaries kept this information from the students and our 6th and 7th grade building made an annoucement at the end of the day and asked the students not to turn on the television set until an adult was with them. I went on the school wide P.A. sytem just before lunch. I had scripted out what I was going to say. I knew that I had to be reassuring and to have a calm voice and demeanor. I did my best to reassure our staff and students that they were safe and that our country would respond to this terrorist action. Many of the parents that we incountererd that day were more stressed out than our students. At the end of the school day I came back on the P.A. system and announced that we were cancelling all after school activities. I had talked to our superintendent of schools and he told me that all after school activities were being cancelled. I again told them what had happenend and told them that no terrorist activities were happening in our area. I told them that they needed to pray or think positive thoughts of support to the people that had lost their lives or were injured. I also told them to do the same thing for the police, fireman and other rescue workers. I told them that many of the 6th and 7th grade students had very little information on what had happened and they should not try to scare these students. I heard the next day our students were excellent on the bus and helped the younger students out. During the day I answered the phone school phone whenever I could. Our secretaries told the same message of what we were doing over and over to parents that were concerned. Many just wanted to talk to us to make sure their kids were safe and being care for. At the end of the day and after all students had left the building the school staff met in one of our larger classrooms. I asked them what we could have done better. I was happy to hear that they thought we had done could have done anything better. They thanked me for being a strong leader and the compassion that I had for staff, students and parents. We have a number of teachers who have served in our military. I asked on what he thought the country would do. He said many of the things that President Bush would say later that day. He said that we would seek out who was responsible and take appropriate action. We then began to plan on what we were going to do the next school day. This was a day I will never forget. The day reaffirmed to me why I chose the profession that I am in.

Jim Wencel