On September 11th, 2024, high school students at Haldane held their First Annual Youth-Led 9/11 Memorial on the front steps, and this is what I remember from that day.
7:30. This morning, I arrived at the campus to see the History Club making a heart out of flags on the hill, a yearly tradition. I asked Ms. Cordaro, the club sponsor, if I could help, and she handed me about a dozen flags. I started placing them in the ground, a task proving to be difficult as almost all spaces were filled. When did they start doing this? I asked, and senior Josie Foley-Hedlund simply replied, “I got here at 6:45.”
I wasn’t even out of bed at 6:45.
I found myself with a group of students who were dedicated to the work, not stopping to do anything else. They were just sticking flags in the ground, talking about the next test, practice, how classes were going, and what was next for them.
I had to go to history class. Something about history class coming up in the morning on the day of the 9/11 memorial is different. Something seemed on our minds, and it would take us a whole day to fully acknowledge it. The morning always feels nationally important, like it is our civic duty to be present at this minute, then at the next one, and then at the next one. However, we also must spend most of those minutes getting some work done and accomplishing much. That is what I felt the need to do. I worked honestly and shared these unspoken feelings about what day it was with my classmates.
9:00. Before I knew it, there I was. Our teachers and our staff, around 15 minutes into our second period of the day, informed the period 4 study hall that 9:00 was when the ceremony would commence. Five minutes later, my friends, acquaintances, and I filed through the middle school hallways and up the famed high school hill– and there we were, in front of our high school building. Hundreds of Haldane people were just talking to each other. Next, the ceremony asserted itself, and the crowd simmered.
Our memorial. Josie [Foley-Hedlund, senior] spoke to credit the Putnam County Youth Bureau for what was about to be said. She then asked for a moment of silence when the second tower collapsed at 9:59, exactly 23 years ago…
Later, I asked Mr. Ogden, a social studies teacher at Haldane, about the aftermath of 9/11. Mr. Ogden stated that his first thought was about all his firefighter friends who would save people in the Twin Towers. Fast forward to today, Ogden told me that “between that, the playing of Taps, the bagpipes… [the memorial] brought me back to the funeral of my friends.” Unity swept our nation following 9/11. It was based on things so sad that one cannot even comprehend them at once.
Josie concluded her speech by telling us to remember this unity and to pay respects to the people who lost their lives trying to save the nation.
Next was our tributes. The names of fallen Putnam County citizens, biographies of 2001 Manhattan residents, and a speech given by Scotia Hartford, senior, that built off of Josie’s speech were read. Adults would interject to speak transitionally, but the students led us through commemoration after commemoration. We had ceremonial music: “The Star-Spangled Banner,” sung by our chorus teacher, Mr. Sauer; taps by our band teacher, Ms. Stein; and “Amazing Grace” by Hudson Highlands Pipe Band member James Hartford on bagpipes.
9/26/24, 2:25 PM. Deputy Tolve made the most effort to get me an interview. I sat down to chat with Mr. Larry Burke, a retired Cold Spring police officer who lived in the Bronx in 2001. One thing I took away from our conversation is that history is valuable and should be remembered if one pursues understanding. 9/11 gets the school year started. I am here on a continuous quest to find my way, and here we all are, having been through that ceremony. We honored uncertainty, commemorated tragedy, and came together to struggle. That makes up our history, and we can figure out how to continue with freedom at our school.
“I don’t think anybody’s ever gonna come to terms with tragedy… but I think creating a community and a safe space where, however, you feel about a situation, you have somebody to lean on, talk to, have that openness- that is what I think brings people, and especially kids, together…” -Ms. McGrath, our history teacher, 9/25/24.