story2193.xml

story2193.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

My Journalism teacher was looking on the internet and he saw a news flash about a plane hitting one of the twin towers in NYC. We were all shocked but did not realize the implications of what he was telling us. When he said plane we thought of a little tiny plane kind of hit them and kind of bounced off. Then he told us that another plane had hit the second tower. We were amazed what was going on? Were all of the planes radar systems going out all of a sudden we had no idea. Then a little while latter, our Principal, came over the loud speaker and told the school that there had been some terrorist attacks, and that the World Trade Twin Towers had been hit. That was no news to people in my class but to the rest of the school that was a shock. Then to everyone amazement he announced that the Pentagon had also been hit by a plane. Our city is located about thirtey minutes south of D.C. and a lot of our school mates had parents friends and relatives that worked there. There was a massive panic. Everyone was trying to call family, and parents were trying to call the school. All of the lines were busy, and for the rest of the day pepole were in and out of classes, recieving and sending messages to family. Luckily, no one in my school new anyone that was injoured, amazingly enough. But one of my close friends, dad was in NYC for a business meeting and his mom had to literally come and pick him up from school in order to tell him that his dad witnessed the attacks but that he was all right. It was a very tense day for everyone. All day we were waiting for the announcement that school would be released early. But it never came. Instead we were told that all after school activities were canceled and that everyone would be leaving school at the end of the day. In our school our paring lot is very crowded and it is very hard to get out, even with a lot of people staying for after school activities. Our scool lets our at 2:00, I was not ablt to leave the parking lot until just after 2:30. From the time that the attacks were announced at school, we went into a miniature lock down, we were allowed our of class but no radios or tv's were alowed on so that people wouldn't get more worried as events unfolded. So on the way home we were finally allowed to hear that the towers had collapsed. That was a schock. When I got home I ran inside to find my mom glued to the tv. we sat there and watched coverage for the rest of the day. My grandparents who live in Wyoming called to check on us. They had no idea what was happenning in the surrounding areas. I was lucky enough not to know any one that was injoured in either of the attacks. But it was a day that will live in my mind forever.