Mrs. Villanti

I was teaching here at Briscoe on September 11, 2001. It came as a complete shock to hear that the United States was under attack by terrorists that day. I remember that it was a clear, crisp September morning with blue skies, which made it all the more difficult to believe and understand what had happened.

When I heard about the planes hitting the World Trade Center towers, I couldn't think of anything else all day. I remember thinking that this must be how my mother felt back in 1941 when Japan attacked the U.S. at Pearl Harbor. I also was stunned to think that something so horrible could happen these days and I said, "I thought we were beyond things like this."

My students were very frightened and confused by what they heard about these attacks. In the following days, I tried to reassure about our safety, and I told them the terrorists wanted to scare us, like bullies try to scare people and that if we let them scare us,they "win" so we should be brave and not be frightened.

Nobody in my family was killed in the attacks, but a colleague of mine lost a nephew in one of the WTC towers.