| Hanging out at the corner
Miguel Rivera, 16; Keynon Jackson, 15; Michael Rios, 14; and Claudio Caminero, 15, were hanging out outside the High School of Art and Design at 2:30 on Thursday afternoon. Rivera said he was in third period Chemistry class when the teacher stopped the lesson to say that a plane had hit the building. Then the principal made an announcement over the loudspeaker saying that they knew some crash had happened at the World Trade Center had happened but they didn’t know exactly the details. “During third period, we kept hearing fire trucks going down Second Ave,” said Rivera. “We couldn’t concentrate on anything. We’re used to hearing nonstop sounds, but this was different.” Rios was in English class when the principal made the announcement. “I thought there was something had gone wrong in the school. But one friend told me that a plane crashed into the World Trade Center. I didn’t believe him then. But then they told us in homeroom.” Caminero, who was in Global Studies class, said his class immediately discussed it “as an act of terrorism,” though their principal did not talk about what caused the accident downtown initially. “They locked the doors because they didn’t want anyone to leave,” said Rios. “Parents were calling and everyone was in a rush to get out. People left if their parents came. Later they told us to go to the terrace. If we didn’t see our parents we could leave on our own. It was so hectic. They told us to go into any classroom, it didn’t matter which one.” “They locked the doors, but I got out somehow,” chimed in Rivera, with a grin. “I went down to The Wiz [an electronics store] on the corner. When I went there, I found out what was really going on because everyone was in the store watching the TVs.” All of them had to walk a distance before they either found a bus to the Bronx or arrived at a relative’s house. Rios went to his grandmother’s house to wait for his mother to pick him up. His mother works in a hospital as a secretary for a doctor and didn’t show up to pick up Rios for some time. “On the way to my real house, I was filling her in,” says Rios. “There were no TVs where she worked, so I was telling her everything. We watched the news for four hours and we couldn’t get over what happened. I was surprised I knew more than she did.” Jackson says that he left school at 1:40, but did not get back home to 114th Street until 3:20. “I couldn’t get through to my parents the whole day. I was upset because I knew three or four people downtown. They’re safe, though. I got home, collapsed, and then walked over to P.S. 125 where my father [Kevin] works.” When he arrived, someone told him that his father had left to pick up his sister at Fiorella LaGuardia High School. He waited for my father to get back. Keynon didn’t see him for long before he left again to give blood. Valen Jackson, Keynon’s sister at Fiorella Laguardia, remembers that the science teacher had just finished taking attendance and was starting her lesson, when the principal came on the loudspeaker to tell them that two planes had crashed into the Twin Towers, but they didn’t know all details. “They said they would keep us posted.” “I was really scared,” said Jackson. “I knew one of our relatives worked downtown, though I didn’t know where. I was kind of worried. Other people had relatives in the World Trade Center and that was making me scared. Since these were my friends, I was concerned.” The class stopped the lesson and began discussing the events. “One boy told us his father just got laid off from somewhere down there, so he was kind of happy his father wasn’t down there.” Classes continued, though Valen said it felt nothing like a normal day. “Normally we can’t use cell phones in school, but everyone was trying to call their parents. People were running around trying to help parents get their child out of class.” “The phones were down in the school. Every time I called it was really busy,” says Valen. “This girl’s mother called on her cell phone. She took my father’s job number down and called him. He told her as soon as his class cleared out, he could pick me up. Then she called the girl back and she told me.” When she got home, she, her brother, and her older sister Verkeya, 22, watched TV and talked to each other. “My sister said she was able to see the building crumble from her job. She teaches in Brooklyn. She told us one of her students had a mother who worked in World Trade Center. She called her son from an elevator. She was trapped in building. She called to tell him she loved him because she wasn’t sure she was going to get out because all the people around her were dead. My brother said a group of his friends started praying.” Her dad and her sister spent much of the night calling people they knew to make sure they were all right. Valen didn’t even see her mother because Mrs. Jackson who is a nurse manager in Jersey City, was stranded outside of Manhattan. When her mother got home at midnight, Valen had already gone to sleep. Hanging out on the corner |