story1846.xml
Title
story1846.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2002-09-07
911DA Story: Story
My principal Sue, hardly ever interrupts our class by knocking on the door. So, on the morning of September 11th while I was teaching religion class in my second grade classroom, I was surprised to see Sue at the door to my classroom. She asked me to come out into the hallway. I automatically began to think to myself, "Which parent is upset and why, or did something happen to my family?" All kinds of things were going through my head. I told my second graders to read the next page quietly to themselves, and went out to talk to Sue.
She told me that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center in New York City. I thought it must have been a small plane that had somehow got off course and had an accident. Sue told me that it was actually a passenger plane and many people were dead. But we both believed that it was just an accident. At the time, the second plane hadn't hit the other building yet. Images flashed through my mind of when I had visited New York just a few years before for a teacher's conference, and one of our stops was the World Trade Center. I searched my mind for the faces that I had seen working in those buildings and wondered if they were OK. Sue told me not to tell the children yet until we had more information. I went back in the classroom where we said a Hail Mary as a class and went back to work.
After dropping the kids off at art about an hour later, I went up to the teacher's lounge to watch the TV that a teacher's aide had brought in. We now knew that our country was under attack. I sat there in shock. Many people were crying and worried about people they knew who were flying that day. We all were thinking about what to tell the students. Parents were calling in and somewhat in a panic. We agreed as a staff that it would be best if we would proceed through the day as normally as we could, and at 1:00 our other principal Greg, would come on the intercom and let our students know what had happened in our country. We would then pray the Rosary together as a school. It was a powerful time.
My own students really did not understand what was happening. Two of them did have parents who were on business in New York City. I had them call home to make sure that everything was OK. Because this wasn't happening directly to them here in Kansas City, it was difficult for them to comprehend.
One year later, we are doing several activities in the classrooms designed to honor the true heroes in our country and to celebrate how fortunate we are to live in such a wonderful country.
I still think about the people who had to endure the terror firsthand on that day. My faith has grown stronger since this tragedy happened. I hope that as Americans we may remember what it takes to be true heroes in this world for the short time that we live here.
She told me that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center in New York City. I thought it must have been a small plane that had somehow got off course and had an accident. Sue told me that it was actually a passenger plane and many people were dead. But we both believed that it was just an accident. At the time, the second plane hadn't hit the other building yet. Images flashed through my mind of when I had visited New York just a few years before for a teacher's conference, and one of our stops was the World Trade Center. I searched my mind for the faces that I had seen working in those buildings and wondered if they were OK. Sue told me not to tell the children yet until we had more information. I went back in the classroom where we said a Hail Mary as a class and went back to work.
After dropping the kids off at art about an hour later, I went up to the teacher's lounge to watch the TV that a teacher's aide had brought in. We now knew that our country was under attack. I sat there in shock. Many people were crying and worried about people they knew who were flying that day. We all were thinking about what to tell the students. Parents were calling in and somewhat in a panic. We agreed as a staff that it would be best if we would proceed through the day as normally as we could, and at 1:00 our other principal Greg, would come on the intercom and let our students know what had happened in our country. We would then pray the Rosary together as a school. It was a powerful time.
My own students really did not understand what was happening. Two of them did have parents who were on business in New York City. I had them call home to make sure that everything was OK. Because this wasn't happening directly to them here in Kansas City, it was difficult for them to comprehend.
One year later, we are doing several activities in the classrooms designed to honor the true heroes in our country and to celebrate how fortunate we are to live in such a wonderful country.
I still think about the people who had to endure the terror firsthand on that day. My faith has grown stronger since this tragedy happened. I hope that as Americans we may remember what it takes to be true heroes in this world for the short time that we live here.
Collection
Citation
“story1846.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed April 13, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/7532.