—Sasha Gsovski, senior
I first found out a plane hit when Teitel made the announcement that “a small plane has crashed into the World Trade Center,” but the way he said it he made it sound like some moron in a 2-person charter plane forgot to pull up on his stick and it was a complete accident, so everyone started laughing and we thought nothing of it.
—Rocksheng Zhong, sophomore
We walked briskly in the halls, looking for people we knew to walk with, watching all the people in hysterics holding each other, everyone was terrified, a lot of people had family in those buildings. God. My friends had family in there.
And we’re all ready to burst and cry and we all are running into each other, and we’re scrunched up against the whole world, and everyone’s wanting to get out!
It’s a terrible situation, everyone is talking about everything, my friends are making pages for the students to post messages about what we think and what’s going on now. After it happened we’re all realizing all the things we liked about that area. Everyone had their special spots. We loved to go to the “faraway deli,” as we called it, for lunch. We loved to go to the “Cinderella stairs” and walk across the mirrored bridge, and we’d see the orchid show, and hang out in the bookstores, and there were just so many things that we will miss…
—Meghan O’Halloran, junior
I really didn’t expect all that to happen…. I didn’t expect the buildings to fall down. I think it’s too hard to comprehend. Seeing it on TV is just not the same, I can’t understand the magnitude of it.
—John Mui, guidance counselor
If this were a movie evacuation it would have been fun; my friends wouldn’t be crying; I wouldn’t be crying. If this were a movie my legs wouldn’t be sore from walking from Stuy to Lexington Avenue, and dummies would fall from the buildings, not people; the Twin Towers would not be scattered across Lower Manhattan and that dark cloud would have not caught in my throat as I walked away as fast as I could. But this isn’t a movie. It’s the scariest day of my life.
—Lu Han, sophomore
These things happen in the world. The only way it’s different from other events like this is that this happened in the U.S. You don’t see the other people in other countries be as crazy as we are—most of those people don’t realize that it’s perfectly fair to have an attack on our soil, considering the political stands we have all around the world.
—Brian Chu, sophomore
I really didn’t expect all that to happen.... I didn’t expect the buildings to fall down. I think it’s too hard to comprehend. Seeing it on TV is just not the same. I can’t understand the magnitude of it.
—John Mui, guidance counselor
I saw people jumping and they looked like debris. I didn’t know people would jump.
—Marisa Ip, sophomore
I had been called to the office immediately following the first plane crash, so I didn’t get to see much of my teacher’s reaction, because a friend’s dad was there to get me…. Some of my friends were crying, others were trying to make jokes, because that was how they dealt with it…. I can’t watch the news anymore, so I have been helping at fundraisers and clothing/food drives. I went to a candle lighting ceremony in the park, and it made me feel a lot better. I couldn’t think anything, I was so upset. I saw red. My friends couldn’t calm me down, I wasn’t crying like most, I was enraged. The anger came from the helplessness—I was so close, but I couldn’t do ANYTHING. And no matter how strong I thought I was.... I still found myself running AWAY from where I had close friends and family.
—Meg Kuczynski, junior
It all seemed to be a blur; the only vivid images I remember is when I was on the marble staircase. I saw the cloud of smoke and dust rush the school. You could not see out the windows. All the teachers I interacted with were calm and tried to console the students as best as they could…. I feel homesick. I think it makes all of us appreciate our school much more than we did.
—Jukay Hsu, senior
I yelled to my class “the Twin Towers just blew up. There’s a big hole in it.” Then everyone when to the windows and people were like, “cool” and stuff.... I felt really guilty after because I shouldn’t be so intrigued by this tragedy. The shock died down and I got the picture later on ... and it wasn’t pretty.
—Lindsay Kim, sophomore
It was a scary experience. The scariest part was when we were being evacuated and we heard a crash. Everyone went running in all directions and there was total panic. I have never felt so scared in my life.
—Ernest Baskin, sophomore
We sat there and I was talking to my friend who was talking about the logistics of the whole thing and what he would have done with the Pentagon instead.
—Hamilton Davis, sophomore
I saw a lot of people crying around me and on me, and I couldn’t figure out how it helps ease any pain that they were having by crying.
—Levon McMullen, sophomore
The first one I thought was an accident, the second I thought was terrorists, when I heard the Pentagon had been done in too I thought I was gonna die. One kid walked into our class late and said that they were making a movie outside; we all laughed at the time because we hadn’t realized what had happened.
—Rene Kessler, sophomore
Most people who experienced the atrocity on TV said they were terrified immediately. However, from a first-person perspective, watching a World Trade Center tower collapse from the 8th floor, I can honestly say I was not in the least bit afraid. It was a feeling of great excitement instead, as if it was a Die Hard 4 or Godzilla 2 or something. I was just thinking of how insane it was, not how many thousands of people were dying as I was watching.
—Paul Banec, freshman
I got uptown, and I was trying to find a way to get downtown, because I was thinking, ‘I need to get to work! I’ll miss my classes!’ That’s all I was thinking. Then I sat down and listened to the news. At that point I thought, “Okay, something’s wrong. Forget about going to work; worry about what’s going on here. Worry about finding your family, worry about getting home. I never made it downtown.
—Jennie Chan, English teacher
Walking closer to the World Trade Center complex, we were searching for a better view. We found, literally, more than we could handle. Standing on the corner of Chambers Street and Greenwich Street, time stood still. For what seemed like an eternity, I stood there, clutching my best friend, and stared.... Then the tower fell. Scared out of my mind, I dragged my friend back towards our school, hoping to find my brother and run away. To the south, a dust cloud was going west and north—towards where we were standing. A mass of people moved, becoming at once a single, frightened organism and several chaotic parts. Finally in school, I couldn’t hold it in anymore.... For the first time since I found out my mom was sick, I cried.
—Laurence Wooster, senior
My teachers listened to all the announcements and followed orders. It was weird because I was with a teacher who was extremely confused and none of us understood him. I was mostly concerned about everyone in Stuy, including my brother.... I remember being in the lobby as the second tower came down and being really scared; all of the emergency vehicles and workers came rushing towards us and everyone started pushing to go out the other way.
—Jeremy Wooster, freshman
As I reached the senior bar, my friend JoJo told me that the crowd of people gathered in front of her had all entered the building bearing reports of a plane that had hit the World Trade Center. I thought it was a joke. Or a little plane; one of those tiny things that carry maybe seven people. I thought it would have bounced right off the tower.... More crying now. My best friend’s dad is in the building. We don’t know where. The phones are down. I have no idea what to do so I actually go to my next class. We were able to watch the news there. There was a live setup, a woman describing what she had seen as she escaped from Tower One. Bloody people. She screams. The camera pans towards the tower and something happens. The TV goes off; the lights go off, the floor shakes. I grabbed onto my friend’s hand and started crying again.... I just remember, as we were running up West Street, I turned back, expecting to see one burning tower, and all I could see was smoke and dust.
Every night though, I make myself stay up as late as I can in order to avoid any difficulty in falling asleep or any nightmares. I am scared to be alone. I try to see my friends and do fun, “normal” things to get my mind off of what happened. It works temporarily. I am no stranger to grief, as my mother died when I was eleven. Yet each day I think “OK, I’ve passed that stage where it upsets me so much. I won’t cry anymore.” And each day I’m wrong. Each day I have cried just a little bit more.
—Jessica Copperman, senior
We need to take action; this isn’t a time to sit back and see what happens. Enough is enough.
—Tal Itzkovich, senior
It was shocking. It made you realize how vulnerable we are as a country, how unprepared. It was so easy to do what they did. The scariest part of it, for me, is that we’re fighting an unconventional war. It’s not like fighting against Iraq. There’s no military base to bomb, no country to target.... I’m very doubtful of our ability to eliminate terrorism. Politicians keep making promises that they can’t keep. The terrorists have guerilla fighters, they’re on strange terrain, much of Pakistan is sympathetic to their cause. It’ll be very difficult.
—Robert Sandler, social studies teacher
We heard this screeching noise and then a real loud boom. It was so loud it shook all the desks, and our desks are fastened to the floor; it was a lab room. We thought it was just a car accident, but the kid next to me was sure it was something more—he thought it was a plane crash. About five minutes later, we see the second plane just crash into the second building, and we’re in hysterics. We think the debris has just become immense, until we look closer and realize that it’s actually people jumping from the WTC... A few minutes later, we see the second building crumble. They eventually evacuate us and we’re running outside. And then people are just screaming that the other building had crumbled as well, so they rush us back in the building, but most of us are already out, and the police push us out, but then we hear gunshots, and there’s chaos everywhere. People start firing guns, and the police tell us to stay low and run for our lives, so five miles later, we look back, and see everything in smoke. Today is entirely different in New York. The once bustling city is silent with tears.
—Jeng Tyng Hong, junior
Alexis Dallara, senior, made these entries in her journal on the day of and those after Tuesday’s attack:
September 11—Today life turned dark and silent—it’s now Midnight, thus concluding the infinitely long day of 9/11/2001 or 911 as it was pointed out. Now that it’s finally midnight, it’s time to look towards a brand new day because the Lord has granted us life and hopefully at the same time, the courage to survive. For now we can’t look back. We lost so many yesterday but they’re in a place even more beautiful than what was the Manhattan Skyline 24 hours ago—they’re in Heaven.
September 13—People can’t tell an Arab from a Muslim from a Palestinian and so, everyone is in such danger. I am especially scared because my neighborhood holds a majority of Indians (Sikhs) and Caucasians from the neighborhood near us have already attacked them. Their temple is one street away from my church and I am afraid to go to Church because I fear more ignorant people might come and try to kill Catholics if this turns into a religious war.
September 17—So sleepy, so drained, so emotional. Tomorrow it will have been one week, and I still haven’t recovered. I don’t know if I should’ve recovered by now or not.
During homeroom, we were told to evacuate the school. We followed the general mass of students onto the second floor. Suddenly, a loud rumble could be heard and people rushed in from the first floor. Chaos erupted. I was standing on the stairs that led to the first floor with my friend Wendy at the time. Both of us stood frozen in confusion until a man yelled at us to get down. At that, I grabbed hold of Wendy and together we ran down the stairs.
—Jerry Wei, sophomore
While everybody else was walking up the West Side highway, I roamed downtown trying to find a place where I could be put to use. I found the volunteer triage center in the square at Center and Worth. In the square, the wounded were being seen to while volunteers were asked to give their blood, clothing and assistance in any way possible. I gave my shirt to be used as a tourniquet. The whole experience felt surreal, the dust blocking out the sun and the sound of buildings collapsing in the distance. We rode into the choking smoke, only to be turned away because air conditions were not safe. I stayed around anyway through the night as they trained me in rescue procedures. We never ended up going in. However, I will always remember the moment I mentally prepared myself to write the word “DEAD” legibly on foreheads of the victims I would find in black marker.
—Anonymous Stuyvesant student
No one I knew personally was working there, but I saw a man falling … and that’s someone’s father or husband or friend. And he had a suit on.
—Anonymous Stuyvesant student
The explosion, the image of the first building crumbling in on itself, I can’t forget that. And the image of all those people on the ground running as the smoke covers them. You could see an emptiness in everyone’s eyes, like no one really knew what was going on. They were all looking for some explanation, and yes, some girls started to cry. Then their friends started to comfort them. I had tears in my eyes.
—Vlad Isakov, senior
I saw people running toward the bridge, and when I looked out the window, I saw a hole in the World Trade Center. I ran and got my camera, and I decided just to leave it on. I tried to get a little bit of the commotion surrounding the events.... When the second blast happened, I tried to run back into the building. I was scared to death. They wouldn’t let me back in, though. Senior pictures were being taken, and I was banging on the door for them to open it, and the people inside just [shrugged apologetically]. I crawled back to the front of the building and ran up the stairs. Everything was calm inside.... The next day I hurt—the experience had been physically draining. It was painful to me that someone would hurt us like that. I’ve always considered America as very innocent, a very innocent society. I think this was our loss of innocence.
—Elka Gould, technology teacher
Every day since that happened, I’ve cried at least once a day. I don’t really know why. After all, I’m one of the lucky ones. I wasn’t hurt, my family wasn’t hurt and my friends weren’t hurt.
—Gabriela Magda, sophomore
I was a little excited and curious at the fact that our boring normal school day had been interrupted. I didn’t realize how serious it was when I saw the towers on TV during 3rd period. I think the most vivid image I had was before the towers collapsed and still had a thick stream of smoke coming out. It was just so amazing to see something so grand and magnificent just go up in smoke like that.
There was definitely a lot of excitement among the classes, although most people were quiet as they were staring at the TV, shocked and not knowing what to say.
—Justin Ma, junior
When I got into room 407 for math, I saw a lot of people walking away from the Twin Towers. One guy said it looked like a “parade.”… Then Mr. Teitel gave us the horrific news that two planes crashed into the towers and another in Washington.... Everyone was trying to reach their family via cell phones. I tried to reach my dad because he worked a few buildings away, but all the cells were down. It seems like they never work when you need them to.... We finally got to a payphone at West 23rd and 11th to call our parents. All the lines were really long and people talked forever. But I reached my mom and told her I was ok. She told me my dad’s office was evacuated and he’s all right.
—Erin Jou, sophomore
After the North Tower was hit, I was sitting in my second period class and it dawned on me that my brother worked in that building, so I left the classroom to try and call someone.... I soon found out that my cell phone wasn’t working. I ran into two of my closest friends, and I was so frantic that they had to lead me to the phones on the first floor. The lines were long and I couldn’t get through when it got to be my turn. We heard about how some students were using Ms. Levine’s office to make calls. So we rushed up, and eventually I got in touch with him, and the second I started to cry from joy, they all did the same. It made me appreciate how much they helped. It turns out my brother decided to just stay home that day for no good reason. Some luck.
—Kristin Loughran, senior
I felt the building shake, but I couldn’t tell if it was the building shaking because I was shaking.
—Kameli Chow, senior
I really kept my head in the sand. I tried not to look out the windows. I went outside and had a cigarette. I could see the whole tower set against the deep blue sky. It was stunning to see the holes and the fire against such a rich blue background. It was incongruous, almost like it wasn’t real. It was actually beautiful. I had a hard time coping with my initial reaction. I felt guilty about it, smoking my cigarette in awe of this spectacle while people were dying. I went back into the building, and I finally went to look out the window … and saw this dark, roiling cloud of smoke and debris coming at us. We’d been waiting for further instructions, but it seemed that there wouldn’t be any further instructions. My thought was just, Let’s get the hell out of here.
—Robert Floersch, social studies teacher
I thought it must have been an accident and I stood and watched. I saw people jumping out of windows. That’s when I realized people were dying.
—Annie Thoms, English teacher
So this was terrorism. But it’s happened before, right? Oklahoma City in 1998, the Tokyo subways in 1995, WTC in 1993, for goodness’ sake. I spent all summer learning about how rare terrorism was and how exaggerated the fear of it was. It wasn’t something we hadn’t dealt with before, right? Things like this have happened. The country knows how to deal with this.... This was how I consoled myself against the nagging voice that told me something was really wrong.... Then I listened to the news. They talked about how it was an unprecedented shutdown of the city. The attacks on America were unprecedented.... We had never entered a territory so dangerous. We had never been this threatened. Things never looked like it could go so wrong. From here, things could go so wrong we can’t even imagine it.
—Michelle Chu, junior
It was frightening and horrific. My seniors were terrified because we were up on the tenth floor and we had seen this catastrophe next door.... I think our main concern was being evacuated to a lower floor because from our vantage point, we could see hordes and streams of people fleeing north. But we waited very patiently until we received word to evacuate.... The students behaved very responsibly. The courage and strength of our students when it comes to adversity was amazing. It was just beautiful to see how brilliantly they responded to this crisis.
—Fee Soohoo, art teacher
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