• Teaching About Tragedy

    by  • September 24, 2011 • News • 0 Comments

    By JOE CARLSON

    Ten years ago the United States of America was unprepared for the most heinous attack on the country anyone had ever seen. Even more unprepared than the country as a whole were the school systems where many of the countries children spent their days.

    America had not experienced a tragedy since the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. This generation of students did not have direct knowledge of this event because of where it happened. The attack on the World Trade Center happened in the biggest city in the world.

    “It was the hardest announcement I ever had to make,” said Susan Kappler, former high school principal of Kittatinny High School in Hampton, NJ. “I knew some of the students had to have parents in the city that day. That made it even harder.

    At 8:46 am on September 11, American Airlines flight 11 flew into the North Tower of the Trade Center. Seventeen minutes later at 9:03 am American Airlines flight 175 was directed into the South Tower. Students in schools in New York and New Jersey alike could see the billowing smoke out the windows of their classrooms.

    Schools across the country faced the dilemma: Do they tell their students about the events that are taking place, or do they not say anything and let the parents of the students inform them when they get home after school.

    Kappler made her first announcement at 8:50 a.m., informing the entire student body and faculty that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center building. She didn’t know she would have to make the announcement again.

    “We figured it was an accident and that we would just update everyone on what was going on,” she said. “After the second one hit, that’s when we learned that it was more than just an accident.”

    Sal Constantino, was the disciplinarian at Fredon Elementary School in 2001, and said that they school decided not to tell their students about the attacks, because they felt they were too young to even comprehend what was happening.

    “The teachers had the news on in the faculty room, but it wasn’t something we felt we needed to share with the students, he said.

    While Constantino was keeping the news from his students, Kappler was organizing her counselors to assemble a grief counseling unit for students who felt they needed it.

    Peter Mahler, a guidance counselor at Kittatinny, was part of that team on 9/11.

    “We didn’t have too many students come to see us, but there were some who couldn’t get in touch with parents in the city. That was pretty tough. But I believe no one in any of our districts lost anyone,” Mahler said.

    As the day went on Kappler and her staff had to keep the school under control during a hectic time, in which a lot was unknown.

    “The students weren’t as bad as their parents. I’m not sure what the exact number was, but a lot of parents picked their kids up from school. When I realized this was happening, I instructed all teachers to just try and keep all their students under control, so that we could get everyone who was going to leave out of the school as orderly as possible,” said Kappler.

    While school around the country handled the tragedy of September 11, 2001 differently, they all had one thing in common. Their number one priority was to protect their kids.


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