story848.xml

story848.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-07-01

I was teaching a reading lesson when Janelle ( the teacher who teaches across the hall from me) came to the door and said that she needed me to come to the door right away. It scared me because she sounded so urgent about it. When I came over she told me that someone had crashed into the World Trade Center and that they thought it might be a terrorist attack. She didn't have a serious look on her face though, so I asked her if she was serious and she assured me that she was. She told me that Ms. Simon (another teacher) had just come and told her,and that she had been crying.
Well, Janelle and I both said that we were going to try to get on the Internet and see what we could find out. We each have a computer in our classrooms so that was the best way that we could find out anything. My students wanted to know what was going on. I explained to them that I wasn't sure, but when I knew something for sure, I would tell them. The Internet was flooded with people trying to do the same thing as us, so at first we had no luck. Then I was able to log on to News2Houston.com, a local news station's website. They had pictures of the World Trade Center's on fire, by then the second tower had been hit. At this point I knew it was a terrorist attack because I knew that there was no way that two different planes had accidentally crashed into the World Trade Center buildings.
At this point I told my students what I knew and I let them gather around the computer to look at the pictures. It was very hard, but I continued to teach. I did the introductory part of the day's language lesson and started the students on their independent seat work.
By this time they had put a TV set in the hallway for the teachers to look at whenever we could sneak away for a minute or two to keep up with what was happening. Then another teacher came to my door and informed me that the World Trade Center had collapsed. She said that it looked just like when they purposely implode a building to build a new one. I came to watch the TV, but they didn't have anything on except News anchors talking.
They turned the TV off when it was lunch time to keep the students from seeing what was going on. I was one of only two teachers in the building that told their students what was happening. All of the other teachers thought that the parents should be the ones to tell them. I believe that the students had a right to know what was happening. I know that I wouldn't like it if people were keeping the truth from me.
It was the hardest day of teaching in my life. I didn't get to listen to or look at news again until after I got off of work. I so wanted to go home and be with my family and to be able to listen to the news. I have never realized before how important the news is to me. It was awful to be at work knowing that some kind of terrorist attack was going on, but not knowing what else might have been happening. I went to donate blood after work, but they were closed due to an overload of blood donations. That was depressing because I really wanted to feel like I could do something, anything, to help.
I also have a son in the Navy and he was getting ready to come home on his first leave in about a year. I wondered how this attack was going to effect him. He was only 18 years old and I worried about him.
I cried for all of the victims and their families. It is and was a horrible thing. All of the people that never get to see their parents, husbands, wives, etc. ever again. The children that I have seen on News Specials that would call their parents cell phones just to be able to hear their voices really touched my heart and soul. It has made me cry so many times. I've bought all of the commemorative magazines, the newspaper from the day of the bombing.
I admire the way that the friends and families of the victims have handled their grief. I hope that they find a way to memorialize the victims that is beautiful and meaningful. I don't know whether or not they should rebuild the World Trade Center Buildings because I don't know if I would be willing to work in them myself. I'm not opposed to rebuilding them.
I want to say to the victim's families: "I am so sorry for your loss and thank you to all of the people who so bravely fought and gave up their lives for someone else. There is NO GREATER LOVE that a person can have. I pray for peace and healing in your families. I pray for your children and want them to know that I love them even though I don't know them. Don't give up! Realize that there are millions more good people than there are bad people and that many of us pray for you"