Councilmember Joseph recalls teaching 5th grade on 9/11 and watching the towers fall
Councilmember Rita Joseph recalls being a fifth-grade teacher on 9/11, watching the towers fall on live TV with her class, and learning that one student's father who worked at Windows on the World was off that day but lost coworkers. She describes carrying that morning with her throughout her career.
Thank you, Chair Dinowitz.
The resolution 7A calling on Albany to pass the governor to sign legislation requiring a 9-11 curriculum in every school in the state.
Let me tell you where I was.
I was a fifth grade teacher.
My students were 10 years old.
This week marks 25 years since that day, which means those 10-year-olds are now grown.
They are in their 30s, some of them raising their own children, children who will never know September 11 as history the way I knew Pearl Harbor.
I remember exactly where I was, room 303.
The principal came over the PA system and said, turn on your TVs, something is happening.
We turned on our television and my whole class watched the towers fall, live together right here in that classroom.
One of my students had a father who worked at the windows on the world, at the top of the North Tower.
I remember calling to find out if that family was okay.
When I reached him, he told me he happened to be off that day.
He was safe, but I could hear it in his voice.
He had tears in his eyes because he was thinking about his coworkers, the people he worked beside every single day.
Who weren't.
It's so fortunate.
I carry that morning with me for the rest of the career in that classroom.
I think about it every time I stand in this chamber and talk about what our students need to know.