Teacher brings 9/11 lecture to next generation

Kari Rise will never forget experiencing 9/11 with students inside her St. Paul classroom, and now she's teaching a generation that never lived it.

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[m_ianO]

I had a cell phone and my dad called me. He said get your ass home. May he rest in peace.

[r_l_o]

We had cell phones. You couldn’t get through because the lines were jammed.

[Bradschermer]

I was a sophomore in high school. I remember my older brother waking me up saying “a plane hit the World Trade Center!” I didn’t think much of it. Until I got to school and I saw every single teacher running TVs into every single classroom.

My first class was world history that morning and my teacher said to us “This is going to change the world as we know it forever.” Everyone stayed in the same classroom all day as watched the news.

I’ll never forget that day.

[marinecorp]

5th grade. You can see the towers from my backyard. Friends from school never returned back to school, their parents never returned home. Smoke was flowing over my yard including some ashes. When they put the lights up after cleanup i remember taking the ferry to drive by the wreckage and a little girl, no older than 5 said the ashes that were floating up into the sky were the souls of those lost. I was 10 years old and a 5 year old said that. I had to contain crying. I’ll never forget what she said.

[Bettylala]

She’s right. She’s saying kids did not have cellphones to call their parents. Yes there cell phones but she’s telling it from the perspective of the age they are

[joshheitman]

I was 8 years old when 9/11 happened. I would turn 9 just less than a month later. I was in the 3rd grade and I was in school when it happened. The school day ended a little early that day and school was cancelled for the rest of the week. When I got home, my mom came and got me when I got off the bus and asked my bus driver if she had any issues getting us kids home and she said no. We didn’t have any issue getting home and I was the first one dropped off. Just as the bus drove off, mom and I sat down on our front porch of our then new house that we had just moved into over the summer and she told me everything that happened that day. The first thing she said to me was “Something really scary happened in New York today”. Those very words will stick with me for the rest of my life whenever I am reminded of that fateful morning. Mom then told me exactly what happened that morning. After she told me what happened, we went inside and she turned on the tv and had me watch the news. We did not live too far from the Wright Patterson Air Force Base at the time and who knew what would happen next. My mom then took me over to my grandparents where I would be safe. By mentioning Wright Patterson, that probably was a dead giveaway that I was living in Ohio at the time. I would be there for most of the week. That was the day the world changed forever. Things have gotten worse ever since

[richardmarkov]

I remember in school as fighter jets passed over my school. I remember being rushed home not knowing what was really happening. My most vivid memory was watching the news as it happened. Seeing dots fall from the towers and then realizing those dots were people, jumping to death. People screaming when they hit the ground. People starting to sob. One of the older gentleman got a call then, asking for him to volunteer for the plane recovery team for the plane that landed in PA. I also remember him coming back to the fire house after. He sat there smoking a Marlboro, just empty, staring into the distance. I asked him if he was okay even though I was only 10yo. He looked at me and I'll never forget what he said,

"There was just pieces. Not even bodies. Just chunks, fingers, bones. Nothing. Not even a body. One day you'll see how evil people can be."
He was right though. The most terrifying thing is knowing what a man can really do to another man.

[charleshowie]

'Nobody had a cellphone.'

You're lying to children, madame.

[ladymondegreen]

I was waiting for PE class to start, and teachers were murmuring in the gym, one was crying. Something about a plane hitting the WTC - most people thought it was an accident at that point, although some said it could be a terrorist attack. Not long after, we were told to go back to class and parents started pulling their kids out of school, one after the other. I was one of them. Driving home, my mom had the radio on, and we heard the second tower had been hit. My mom said that it was a terrorist attack. Came home and the news was on the tv; we watched all day. Later that night, there was a local vigil, and everyone came together, flags everywhere, “God Bless America” songs everywhere. As Americans, there was unity for a brief moment.

[cco]

Everyone was getting called out of class. I went to the bathroom and came back and more than half the class had gone home. Teachers weren’t exactly sure what was going on. My mom picked my bro sis and I up, I sat on her bed and watched the towers fall. I was 9 and she said “you’ll remember this day the rest of your life and the world will never be the same after this”…oh how true that was.

[stevenwatts]

it happened on my 12th birthday. i was handing out cupcakes to my class when we found out. its kinda crazy to track but i remember every time i mentioned my birthday for the next 10 years or so everyone reacted the same way, they all would gasp and say, "oh wow really" and we would talk about it for a second. as time has gone on less and less people would react about it until now no one even bats an eye because more "adults" now werent even born yet or were super young and it doesnt resonate with them. i am from Alabama, thankfully i didnt lose any family or friends that day, but because it was on my birthday i feel eternally connected to it and i think about those nearly 3000 souls we lost every day, and i acknowledge them on every birthday, ill be 35 this year, it doesnt seem like 23 years ago. there is a lot of things and people that can/were blamed for what happened, there are many different reasons behind it, but the reality is peoples lives were lost that day and we should never forget them.

[bipolarbusiness]

I was in elementary school. I didn’t have a cell phone. All the kids we’re getting taken out of class. We watched the news all day. Our teacher’s guidance was hero’s work during that time.

[jessymfwilson]

They allowed us all to go home immediately. Those of us who didn’t walk home or have rides right away went to the auditorium/study hall to watch waiting for the buses. I remember watching everything on a giant screen from a projector and then the first tower went down. A boy in my class collapsed screaming and crying. He thought his Father was in the tower. To see this strong boy break down was just heart breaking. I remember they tried to take him out of the room. I still cry thinking about it. The unbearable pain he must have felt. Turns out his Father didn’t make it to NYC and by the grace of god was late to his meeting. I remember us silently crying just hugging each other. I remember getting home and just watching everything on TV with my siblings. My Father worked for IBM at the time and couldn’t leave work. The devastation went beyond physical and effected the data. He had to stay at work for two days to help with clients servers etc because of the Towers going down. It is just crazy how one day will forever be etched in my mind.

[kdkdf]

We had cell phones, the kids didn't

[margarethdekeijser]

I'm Dutch. And I was at work when we heard the neus on the radio. The whole factory shut down all the machines, and we all went to the canteen and we all followed the news on the tv. We were all so shocked. And we worked with people who were Muslim, Catholic etc. Thankfully we all supported eachother. 😢😢
I'll NEVER forget this day.

[lindaperkins]

I was buying flowers for my mom since it was her birthday and on the phone with my bestie since her sister was in labor having her first kid, when it happened. No body who was old enough to understand will ever forget it.

[DJVideso]

"Nobody has a cellphone, nobody called their parent".
*9/11 videos have left the chat*

[villageidiot]

I was a junior in HS, asleep in economics class when this happend. Woke up, saw the videos. At lunch my older brother and I talked about enlistment. We went to the recruiting office that day. My brother was a senior and left that spring, I followed the year after. We are now both retired, him staying longer and retiring this year with 23 years active service. I did exactly 20. Great experience, God bless America!

[NoKapMan]

My daughter is 13. Last year I sat her down and we watch a documentary about it. her mind was thoroughly blown not only by what happened but what life was like prior to it.

[bostonterriermom]

People had cellphones and were calling and speaking / leaving messages to their loved ones ….