Student essay on 9/11 photography, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Commemorative cditkin bv tiie students of Stuj^esant High School

Pressure from Parents, It was shocking. It made you realize how vulnerable we are as a country, how unpre­ Change of Plans pared. It was so easy to do what they did. The scariest part of it, for me, is that Abigail Deutsch we're fighting an unconven­ tional war. It's not like fight­ After selecting Brooklyn Overcrowding brought not the immediate return of kids to Technical High School as only space problems but also Stuy,” Christodoulou said. The ing against Iraq. There's no Stuyvesant’s foster home late in safety problems, Christodoulou parents also requested a split military base to bomb, no the week of the World Trade said. There would be over 7,000 schedule—in which the country to target.... I'm very Center tra]igedy, the Board of people in a building that, she Brooklyn Tech and Stuyvesant doubtful of our ability to Education 1decided to start our said, is suited for closer to 6,000. communities would never be in eliminate terrorism. school day at 11:00 a.m., stick to The PA asked Chancellor Harold the building at the same time— Politicians keep making prom­ 40-minute classes, and reshuf­ O. Levy for a certificate of occu­ and 30-minute periods. ises that they can't keep. The fle programs. But protests from pancy and evacuation plans Levy requested on terrorists have guerilla fight­ the Parents’ Association helped and requested that Teitel ask Wednesday, according to Teitel ers, they're on strange ter­ lead to a change of plans, Manhattan Superintendent and Christodoulou, that parents according to Parents’ Tony Sawyer and McCaskill for stop flooding his inbox because rain, much of Pakistan is sym­ Association President Marilena the same information, which the deluge had made it difficult pathetic to their cause. It'll be Christodoulou. was never supplied, she said. to conduct business, and fax very difficult. In order for the original Another concern was that him instead. Christodoulou —Robert Sandler, social stud­ plan to work, the Stuyvesant going back to Stuyvesant as said she told Levy her safety and ies teacher community would share the soon as possible would be best academic concerns, and he said building with Brooklyn Tech for the students, Christodoulou he’d look into it. Later that day We heard this screeching students and faculty for four said—students had been trau­ Teitel and Deputy Chancellor noise and then a real loud periods in the middle of the day. matized enough and needed a David Klasfeld informed her boom. It was so loud it shook “It was hoped that we could return to normalcy. that students would be on a give as much of an original split schedule. Instead of the all the desks, and our desks instructional day as possible,” 30-minute periods the PA had are fastened to the floor; it said Principal Stanley Teitel. requested, 26-minute periods was a lab room. We thought “During the overlap periods, we For one of the overlap were implemented. Brooklyn it was just a car accident, but were going to program lunch for periods ... up to 40 class- Tech students had 37-minute the kid next to me was sure it our students. That was the rea­ periods, down from 42. They was something more—he son for the reprogramming. I needed us to have lunch earlier es-1,400 kids-would be arrived for school at 7:15 a.m. and left by 1:15 p.m. First period thought it was a plane crash. About five minutes later, we in the day because they didn’t in the theater being for Stuyvesant began at 1:30 p.m. have enough classrooms.” and the school day ended at see the second plane just crash into the second build­ But the plan had flaws, taught by 40 teachers 6:23 p.m. According to Teitel, according to Teitel and because Stuyvesant students ing, and we're in hysterics. Christodoulou. For one of the using portable chalk­ will no longer be in the building We think the debris has just overlap periods, only 10% of at the same time as Tech stu­ become immense, until we Stuyvesant’s classes would be in boards. dents, we won’t need lunch look closer and realize that classrooms, Christodoulou early in the day to ease crowd­ It's actually people jumping said, and “up to 40 classes— ing, thus reprogramming was from the WTC.... A few min­ 1,400 kids—would be in the the­ To those ends, the PA began unnecessary. utes later, we see the second ater being taught by 40 teachers e-mailing Levy “big time,” said Christodoulou said she was building crumble. They even­ using portable chalkboards. The Teitel. promised that the Stuyvesant PA felt no meaningful instruc­ According to Christodou- building would be under tually evacuate us and we're tion would take place under the lou, on the weekend of Septem­ Stuyvesant’s control by October running outside. And then circumstances, with 40 teachers ber 15, the PA tried to call every 1. A 24-hour cleanup crew is people are just screaming that talking at once.” In addition, Stuyvesant family to inform standing by; it will take between the other building had crum­ students were upset at the them that Stuyvesant classes two and five days after the vol­ bled as well, so they rush us prospect of changing programs, would resume at Brooklyn Tech unteers now using the building back in the building, but most which would probably mean the next Thursday, and to ask leave to clean it, Christodoulou of us are already out, and the switching teachers. them to go online and read the said. Both city engineers and police push us out, but then Teitel said he directed PA’s mission statement on its the PA’s own engineers analyzed we hear gunshots, and there's Assistant Principal of website. On Monday, Septem­ the building and found it struc­ Technology Steve Kramer to ber 17, the PA held an emer­ turally sound. chaos everywhere. People program classes for the audito­ gency board meeting and post­ “I know from experience start firing guns, and the rium and planned, during class ed a statement on the site ask­ that in the Board of Ed, when police tell us to stay low and time, to walk around the build­ ing parents to e-mail the parents unite as ours did and e- run for our lives, so five miles ing with Brooklyn Tech princi- Chancellor. mail the Chancellor big time, later, we look back, and see pal Dr. Lee McCaskill and try to “We didn’t tell them what to he’d [have] to realize he had to everything in smoke. Today is identify safe areas where classes say,” Christodoulou said. “We reconsider the program he had entirely different in New could meet. wanted the parents to say how put forward,” Teitel said. York. The once bustling city is “We’ll identify spaces, then they felt. We gave the facts and For now, Christodoulou silent with tears. move them from the auditori­ our concerns, and if the parents said, her main concern is seeing um, [one] class at a time,” Teitel felt the same way, we gave the that the October 1 deadline is —JengTyng Hong, junior said. “But somewhere along the Chancellor’s e-mail.” kept. way we came to realize that the “By Wednesday morning, “It is very important to number of spaces was not going the Chancellor had received have the most continuity and to be enough.” hundreds of e-mails asking for the least disruption,” she said.

16 The Spectator • Fall 2001

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