“It was 9:02 a.m. The phone rings, its my wife, and she says turn on your TV, some idiot just flew a plane into the Trade Center. So I had turned on the old monitor and I’m on the old phone and sure enough some idiot flew into the tower. I’m like its a beautiful day and the sun’s out how could you be that stupid? So there’s this period that most people in America didn’t really know what was going on and they actually just thought it was a bad accident. Then 23 minutes later, 9:32, I had it on [TV] and the second one hit and I knew we were at war,” said Social Studies teacher Gerard Rohl, describing the day of attack, 9/11.
As September 11th was happening, reporters across the nation were covering the attacks which spread the news across the country. As people everywhere were tuning into their TV’s throughout the day, soon enough the whole school of BHS was watching it too.
“Mr. Rohl’s student teacher ran into the room and said, ‘Turn on the TV, turn on the TV!’,” said Social Studies teacher Scott Palmer. “We [the class and Palmer] were all shocked. It’s hard to describe, but we were all just like, what just happened? We were all basically just shocked and drawn into the television, trying to get the most information we could. It was the same information over and over again, the plane in the Pentagon and the one in Pennsylvania. I just remember being kind of dumbfounded looking at this thing going, wow, who would do this to us and why would they hate us so much that this would happen?”
As every monitor in the school was turned on watching the news, students and staff were hoping to hear more news as the day went by wondering what was going on.
“We’re watching the buildings burn and people jumping off the higher floors and they know they’re going to die when they jump off that high, there isn’t much of a chance of surviving that and I kept thinking, what it must be like it inside to escape that?,” said English teacher Sandra Goers.
When the attacks had finally stopped and what just happened and why was beginning to settle in, the stories started flowing out about loved ones missing and that have died. America was truly impacted.
“The most heartbreaking thing for me, I finally had to quit watching [The Today Show] because that week after you get so many personal stories that this person was missing and this person was gone,” said former English teacher and media generalist, Denise Wahlin-Fiskum. “Those personal stories are what put be around the bend and I would get to second block and I was supposed to teach and I would be an emotional mess, and I finally thought I can’t do this anymore even watch it, it was interesting but absolutely heartbreaking.”
Although most students from BHS can’t remember 9/11, the staff and past students of BHS can remember. The day when America was attacked on her own soil is history that had an outstanding effect on everybody in the United States, including personally BHS.
