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MAMARONECK, N.Y. -- Josh Criss was in his first grade classroom when two planes flew into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and remembers hearing an announcement over the loud speakers.
"I just remember them coming on the loud speakers and telling all of the fourth and fifth graders to go to the auditorium," said Criss, while in his AP U.S. History class Friday.
The 11th grader remembers wanting to go too, because his sister, who was in the fifth grade, would be there and he wanted to know what was going on.
Caroline Scudder, U.S. History teacher, focused her Friday classes around Sept. 11 just two days before the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. Although she began by asking what students remembered about that day, she used a "different point of entry" to further address the difficult subject.
"The question then becomes, how do you memorialize 9/11?" Scudder asked her class after discussing other historical monuments.
Down the road at Rye Neck Middle School and High School, students watched a 32-minute screening of REBIRTH, a documentary that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this past January following five people whose lives were directly affected by Sept. 11. Simultaneously, it tracked the evolution of the World Trade Center minute-by-minute from demolition using time-lapse photography.
Rye Neck students filed into the Performing Arts Center around 1:15 p.m. for the screening, just a few minutes after Scudder's class watched a slightly shorter video, also documenting first responders.
Earlier Friday, a group of three local first responders told their stories at a breakfast held by the League of Women Voters at Hector's Village Cafe.
What are your memories of Sept. 11? Do you know someone who was directly affected by the attacks? Comment below, on Facebook or Twitter. You can also submit your response to local reporter Brian Donnelly at bdonnelly@mainstreetconnect.us.
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