| City
Schools Observe 1st Anniversary of 9-11
By
Katarzyna Kozanecka
 September
11th falls on a Wednesday this year. Over a million children will
be in school across the five boroughs. Or will they? “I’m sure
many kids won’t show up, and those who do will be thoroughly upset,”
said Alex Herman, speaking of her classmates at Stuyvesant HS
in downtown Manhattan, where she is a senior. How to spend the
first year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade
Center is one of the most pressing issues that New York City educators
face as the 2002-03 school year begins.
No
Specific Plans for Public Schools
“It’s
going to be a day of reflection but at the same time as normal
a school day as possible,” said Kevin Ortiz, a spokesperson for
the New York City Board of Education, recently renamed the Department
of Education, setting the tone for 9-11 commemorations in all
public schools. In keeping with Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s directive,
schools will observe a moment of silence at 8:46, at which time
the first plane hit. The rest is up to the discretion of principals,
who know the needs of their faculty and children best.
Carmen
Farina, superintendent of Community School District 15 in Brooklyn,
will meet with her principals to discuss those needs. George Greenfield,
her executive assistant, stressed that any commemoration would
be “subdued, quiet, respectful. Were trying to put it behind us,
he said. We had a couple of schools who were right across the
river and you could look out a window and see. It was a tough
year.”
One
of those schools, MS 142, the Carroll Gardens Community School,
will be the staging area for the Fireman Steven Siller Tunnel
to Towers race through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. According
to Michael McVey, the race director, this 5-kilometer walk/run
retraces the route that the deceased fireman and father from Staten
Island took on the morning of September 11. He had finished his
night shift at the Squad 1 firehouse in Park Slope, Brooklyn and
was driving through the tunnel when he got the news. He grabbed
what gear he had and started running. The race will take place
on Sunday, September 29, and is open to the public. Older student
volunteers will be needed to hand out water and assist at the
finish line. Benefits will go to the Stephen Siller Let-Us-Do-Good
Children’s Foundation.
Elsewhere
in the city, teachers may devote a lesson to Messages to Ground
Zero, a collection of children’s writings and drawings published
by Heineman. Ortiz suggested reading passages aloud. Helen Santiago,
superintendent of Community School District 1 in lower Manhattan,
said, “I would use this as a writing experience. The book could
also serve as a jumping-off point for a discussion.” In a similar
vein, Daylin Hull, Senior Class President of Francis Lewis HS
in Queens, suggests displaying student’s artwork and writing in
the auditorium or another central place. The hope is for young
people to reflect individually and at the same time in a familiar
setting, their school.
But
for some students, especially those in the downtown area, school
will not be a comfort but a reminder of last year’s horrible events.
Students at PS 234, IS 89, HS of Economics and Finance, HS of
Leadership and Public Service, and Stuyvesant will recall that
morning’s panicked evacuations. Stuyvesant senior Christopher
Lapinig said, “I do not believe that schools should force us to
go on with our everyday routines of studying and homework.” Herman
recalled her post 9-11 vigils and volunteering as healing experiences
that should be repeated on the anniversary. Stuyvesant history
teacher Anthony Valentin said, “My wish, though it would not be
possible, would be to see the students who were with me at the
time of the attack and our evacuation.” Stuyvesant Principal Stanley
Teitel could not be reached for comment.
Some
Stuyvesant parents wonder whether the school will even be in its
own building by September 11th. Public schools are scheduled to
open on September 5th, but Paul L. Edwards of the Concerned Stuyvesant
Parents Association (a group separate from the Parents Association)
said that the environmental cleanup of the school’s ventilation
systems, which has been underway since July 12th, might not be
finished on time. Within the last 2 weeks, additional testing
performed by a PA environmental consultant showed that the auditorium
is heavily contaminated by asbestos. “There have been some outright
lies,” said Edwards, citing the BOE’s October 2001 reassurances
to parents that the building had been subject to a thorough cleaning
and asbestos abatement, when it had not. The continued finding
of contamination at Stuyvesant should be of concern to any school
in the area. But little action has been seen on the part of those
schools. Edwards said some have dismissed the CSPA as alarmist.
Incoming freshman Innokenty Pyetranker said, “The only thing that
worried me is that [we] haven’t been getting any updates on a
situation that is vital to us.”
Poly
Prep Subject of Documentary Film
Poly
Prep, a non-denominational private school whose full name is Brooklyn
Polytechnic Preparatory Country Day School, took its share of
9-11 blows: eleven alumni died, a student lost her aunt, and a
teacher lost her brother. The school is the subject of a Channel
Thirteen documentary, a special of the New York Voices series
produced by John DeNatale. “Lessons of September: One School Remembers
9-11” airs at 10 p.m. on September 5th. Robert Aberlin, business
manager and history teacher at Poly Prep, co-produced the program,
which does not include graphic footage of 9-11 but rather chronicles
grief and recovery though actor John Turturro’s narration and
interviews with members of the Poly Prep community.
Turning
to nature for solace in the weeks after 9-11, the Poly Prep administration
created a garden. Turning to art, Cameron Bossert wrote a musical
about September 11th and performed it with his fellow students.
First grade teacher Pat O’Berg, who lost a brother in the attacks,
found strength to carry on in the children, who built the Twin
Towers out of blocks and decided to let them stand.
Many
students were gathered in the chapel, the central assembly room
of the school, when news of the attacks reached them. Later, portraits
of the lost alumni were hung on one of its walls, joining the
portraits of alumni who were killed in wars. A moment of silence
was observed for 9-11 victims at every chapel meeting this past
year. This September 11th will begin with an extended chapel,
at which the documentary will be shown. Athletic events but not
classes will be cancelled. Aberlin expects the yearly commemoration
of 9-11 to continue at Poly Prep for at least a decade, because
the tragedy was so close to home. But the school will forever
continue to award scholarships, matching current seniors with
families of lost alumni.
In
Jewish tradition, there is a prayer called the Mourner’s Kaddish
which is recited daily for eleven months by anyone who has lost
a close relative. Similarly, the past year has been one of mourning
for (and celebrating the good deeds of) dear ones killed on September
11th. This month, with the airing of the Thirteen documentary,
Poly Prep will begin a new year along with other New York City
schools, all of whom have learned the same lessons.#
Education
Update, Inc., P.O. Box 20005, New York, NY 10001.
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