Albuquerque Public Schools
Remembering 9/11
In her weekly message, Superintendent Durán Blakey reflects on the day that changed our nation forever and honors the extraordinary educators who guided students through a national crisis.
One of the great things about being an educator is the resilience it instills. Day in and day out, educators adapt to whatever situation arises with calm leadership, knowing that a classroom full of students is looking to them for reassurance and guidance.
That resilience was on full display 25 years ago today, when our world was turned upside down in the span of a few hours.
At the time, I was a U.S. history teacher at Highland High School. On that Tuesday morning, I distinctly remember someone yelling updates down the hallway as news broke of the planes crashing and the World Trade Center towers falling.
Like most Americans, when I heard the news of the first plane crashing into the tower I chalked it up to a horrible tragedy. But the realization that our nation was under attack began setting in as a second plane crashed into the World Trade Center, a third plane struck the Pentagon and a fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.
I remember thinking about Pearl Harbor and realizing that we were living through history.
I also remember the sadness I felt over the loss of life and that shattered sense of security – that loss of the perception that terrorist attacks were things that happened in far off places, not in the U.S.
But I also recognized that my students were scared and confused and that I needed to keep it together for them. We discussed what was happening and how they were feeling, and I did my best to reassure them that everything was going to be OK.
A national catastrophe was unfolding, and we, as educators, had to figure it out and react in real time. And that’s exactly what we did.
On that day, our entire country was on heightened alert. All commercial airplanes were grounded and airspace was closed. Those precautions extended to military bases across our country, and I remember students from Sandia Base Elementary School being brought to Highland because of the enhanced security measures instituted at Kirtland Air Force Base.
As educators, we stepped up. Our administration mobilized members of the Student Senate to welcome, comfort and spend time with the young elementary students.
Our world changed on that day, but that tragedy also united our country like nothing I’d seen before or since. For me, it demonstrated that educators will always rise to support our young people through any challenge.
It’s hard to believe that 25 years have passed. The high school students in my classes back then are now in their 40s, and an entire generation of Americans, including all of our current students, never knew a world before 9/11.
But those students who were in our classrooms on that fateful day will always remember the kindness we showed them as they were processing that horrific tragedy.
Today we honor the 2,977 innocent individuals who lost their lives, including the 343 firefighters, 23 police officers, and 37 Port Authority officers who died trying to save others. We also renew our own promise to keep showing up for our students with the same strength, compassion and kindness that define us as educators.