CMSD educators share memories of 9/11 (Video)
CMSD NEWS BUREAU
9/11/2021
Most people recall where they were and how they felt when they learned planes had struck the twin towers at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
As America marks the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack, CMSD teacher Kristen Danna remembers as if it was yesterday.
“A fourth-grade teacher came into my classroom from our connecting room and yelled, ‘The United States is under attack,’ ” said Danna, who was teaching fifth grade at Miles Park School. “About half of my class began to panic and cry.”
She remembers trying to calm her students by reading them a book, all the while trying to remain calm herself. She couldn’t stop thinking about her family.
“It was difficult for me not to worry about my own family, since I had a mom and sister who worked in a downtown Cleveland building,” said Danna, who now teaches eighth grade at Walton School. “My husband was safe at work, and my 1-year-old daughter was safe at a babysitter’s.”
Ron Schroth was teaching American history to about 25 Lincoln-West High School students when word of the terrorist attack reached his room.
“I quickly put the TV on and watched in horror as the Trade Center was on fire,” Schroth said. “As we were watching, the second plane hit. The shock on the faces of the students and the same disbelief I was feeling overwhelmed the classroom.”
Crystal Wiece had just begun her first year as intervention specialist working with deaf students. She was instructed to close the blinds and stay away from the windows at the now-closed Alexander Graham Bell School.
“Later, I found out that Flight 93 had flown and turned around over or near Cleveland. It was frightening,” said Wiece, who is now at Willson School.
Flight 93 crashed in a field outside Shanksville, Pa., after the passengers and crew attempted to retake control of the plane from the hijackers.
“My students did not understand what was happening, and neither did I, but nevertheless it was my job to explain, assure and comfort them,” said Wiece.
While CMSD educators watched the tragedy unfold on TV with their students, Miguel Nieves witnessed it firsthand.
He was on his way to work at a school in Brooklyn, N.Y., when the subway train he was on let passengers off in Manhattan, right by the twin towers.
“It was crazy because I saw people running everywhere, and everyone was screaming,” said Nieves, now a bilingual instructional aide at Marion C. Seltzer PreK-8 School. “I saw people jumping from the twin towers.”
Parents started arriving at the schools to pick their children up early. CMSD closed schools the day after the terrorist attacks. And when classes resumed, teachers tried to make sense of the horrible day with their students.
“I described how our lives would change, that our rights may be scaled back because of this," said Schroth. “It was a numbing experience. It was a day I hope to not ever experience again.”
After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the war on terror began.
Mark McNamee remembers how Muslim-Americans were treated during that time and took it upon himself to show concern for a Muslim 10th-grade student in his class at John Marshall High School.