September 11th, 16 years later

September 11th is a date that lives in infamy, as in 2001, a terrorist attack was committed in America that caused the deaths of more than 3,000 individuals. The story is known well, where four commercial planes were hijacked and intended to crash in largely populated landmarks, being the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and the White House. Only the initial three crash sites were struck, and the importance of this date carries on years later.

Psychology teacher Phil Perry knows exactly what he did 16 years ago that morning.

“I was a senior in college, and I remember waking up and watching the news, hearing about the first one and watching the second,” Perry said. “It just changed the whole perspective of how the U.S. really interacted with the rest of the world, so far during my lifetime, there were some minor conflicts, it just brought home more what the rest of the world struggles with in terms of conflict based on religion or ideology that we hadn’t really experienced here in America before.”

For anyone born after the event with no recollection of when it occurred, the terror attacks hold a significance in recent history.

“I wouldn’t understand it as well as my parents and my brother would understand it,” Ninth grader Timothy Lucas said. “What everybody puts out, what people give and what people do, everything in the media. It felt devastating.”

However, in the dark of the smoke that day, first responders and witnesses, and people from all around the world shared their support for victims and families.

“It’s just frightening, but it’s also one of those times you really felt like the country was hopefully coming together for a good purpose,” Perry said. “we were coming together like we are now for Hurricane Harvey and with Hurricane Irma, banding together to show the strength of the American people.”

Perry will be hosting FIT sessions September 14th and 15th dedicated to all that join for them to have an opportunity to share their experiences in a safe, open listening environment that will focus on the topic of 9/11 and how it happened, why it happened, and how to move forward years later.

“I want to give [students] an opportunity to understand what it was that I felt, and to share how other people felt,” Perry said. “so that we can get an idea of why we still reflect on this day as such an important day.”