By JOSEPH KELLARD
While Principal Dr. Karen Siris began visiting classrooms to announce that planes had crashed into the World Trade Center, students in other classes remained in the dark about this news and were confused by unusual circumstances unfolded.
"Person after person were leaving," wrote Jesse Moss in an essay describing her experiences on that infamous day, explaining how parents were taking their children out of classes. "I wasn't sure why. Finally, at lunch time there was about 10 of us left."
Adding to her and other students' confusion was when told of the news, they were unsure what the World Trade Center was. "I thought it was a museum," Jesse said.
For other students, some of who had visited and knew the general location of the WTC, the news instantly struck cords of anxiety and fear.
Christopher Vale believed that his father, Mark, a broker for City Group on Wall Street, possibly worked by New York's then tallest skyscrapers.
"I asked my teacher if Wall Street is near the World Trade Center, and she told me it was," Chris said. "A kid in fifth grade told me a plane crashed into it. I thought it was a small plane. I didn't know that it was two big planes that went into both towers. I was crying because I thought something bad happened to my father. I was thinking that the rest of the day."
Chris' father had emerged from a subway station two blocks from the WTC minutes after the first tower was hit. He thought the papers raining down on him were from a parade. Later that day, after walking from Wall Street through heavy smoke from the fallen towers, he made it to safety and crossed the Manhattan Bridge. When he drove up to the front of his house, Chris greeted him with a big hug.
That morning, Michelle Feibusch's cousin, Jeffrey, an employee for American Express, was scheduled to attend a meeting on the 106th floor of tower one.
"Dr. Siris came into our class room saying, 'There was a terrible plane crash in Manhattan at the World Trade Center. My heart raced," Michelle wrote in her 9-11 essay.
Her family tried reaching Jeffrey on his cell phone. They only got his voicemail. Hours later, she and her family gathered around a TV at her aunt's house and watched the horrific events through tearful eyes, assuming he was among the terrorists' many victims. Suddenly, the phone rang.
"It was my cousin, Jeffrey. He said he was all right, his meeting got changed to New Jersey and he's stuck in traffic. We began to cry from happiness," Michelle recalled.
In August, after attending a beauty pageant at the WTC, Michelle and her friend excitedly placed their hands on one of the Twin Towers, knowing they were the equivalent of an American monument. Although there was no time that day for them to travel to the top, Michelle's mother promised she'd take her there during vacation in December. The terrorists destroyed those plans.
Being told that planes crashed into buildings is one thing. But learning that this was done deliberately to cause mass death, and watching the massive destruction on TV, brought forth a new but ominous reality for these children.
"I couldn't pick up an image of what had happened," Lauren Kaye recalled. "...It hadn't hit me until I had gotten home. My baby-sitter was sitting on the couch with her eyes glued to the TV....It was the first tower, going down, exploding....That was when reality struck me. I was in shock for a few minutes."
When Scott Cohen arrived home he found his mother sitting before the TV news coverage. "I watched what was going on and I got sick to my stomach," he said.
After Scott and others actually watched the terrorists wreak their evil, students experienced further confusion, captured in the question: why?
"What got me most was all the smoke and debris falling, and why would people drive planes into buildings to kill people?," Melissa Vogel said. "What makes a person feel that he or she could feel happy about blowing up human beings?"
Her confusion over the savagery some human beings can exact on others increased as she watched other events from that day.
"What I saw really disgusted me," she wrote in her essay. "I saw the parents and children of Palestine jumping up and down. They were happy that the United States was being attacked or that they killed hundreds or even thousands of people. All they did was cheer."
Echoing these sentiments was Jesse Moss. "I saw [Palestinians] cheering on TV and it made me very angry. Why would people want to kill themselves to hurt other people?," she asked.
"People on the plane knew they were going to die. [To do what the hijackers did], that's not right," said Sarah Van Houten, whose father, a city detective, went to work later that day and escaped harm.
In the aftermath of Sept. 11, 9E students, like children nationwide, were given reasons why America was attacked by Islamic fundamentalists, to help them make some sense of what seemed senseless. For some students, the seeds of their healing process were planted that day with the unsuccessful attack on the White House.
"When I was told about [Flight 93] and how the people on board fought the terrorists, that made me feel better," Melissa said.
To recognize and show appreciation for the rescue workers' heroic work at ground zero, 9E students created and collected toy bears ("care bears") and gave them to the firefighters and police officers who visited their school.
Brittany Jakubowitz, who was also anxious knowing that her mother worked near the WTC (but was unharmed), helped her brother with his lemonade sale that generated several hundred dollars for the Red Cross.
Just as earlier generations remember their experiences on hearing about the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, which launched the United States into the most destructive war in history, these and other children today will long remember the most destructive terrorist attack in history.
"The mark it will leave in your heart is forever," wrote Michael Dauber in his essay, "even if your loved one died or survived."
