Redhawks reminisce on the 20th anniversary of 9/11

Cooper Ragle, Executive Producer|September 10, 2021

Millions of Americans will be taking time tomorrow to remember those who risked and sacrificed their lives in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 9/11. This year marks the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and the impact of the day is still vividly remembered by some people on campus.

For coach Kenneth Schiumo Jr., the event was one that marked his childhood. 

“So September 11, 2001, for me is a day I will always remember. I was in fifth grade at the time and right before the 9 o’clock hour we got alerted that there was some sort of something to where we had to evacuate our school, now we didn’t know at the time what exactly that was, but my class rose from our seats, we followed our teacher out the door, and we went across the street to our church where it’s all underground so that’s where we took refuge,” Schiumo said. “And we went underground, didn’t know what was going on, obviously we didn’t have phones like we do today, social media, or access to any of that, so we’re kinda just sitting waiting and then our pastor actually came out and said, a small plane has flown into the World Trade Center, that’s all we know at this point because nothing had been aired on the news yet on cable all they saw was smoke coming from one of the towers.”

The students of Frisco ISD weren’t alive at the time, but the importance of the event still echoed in their lives.

“So being born after 2001 I didn’t really get to see just like how extreme the event was, like the aftermath of it,” senior Evan Moros said. “When we going to airports now we have the huge like metal detectors and they’re countermeasures for something like that happening again so although I wish they were just put in beforehand and like the 9/11 never happened, because of the lives lost, the countermeasures that are being put in in airports and just like travel, in general, is just some sort of aftermath event that I’ve only gotten to experience with everybody else born after that didn’t really get the multitude of the event when it happened.”

While the date is one that is shrouded in infamy, the days after also had a significant impact.

“The morning after 9/11 I drove past the Pentagon as I did every morning on my way to work; it’s about two blocks from the capitol building in Southeast Washington DC and the reason it took so long is that as you approach the Pentagon from the south on the 395 freeway off to your left it was glowing a bright orange color from the impact. The fires were out but the building itself was glowing a bright orange” English teacher David Volkmar said. “And about two months after 9/11 I was actually sent to work at the Pentagon, I worked in the section of the building that had been struck by the plane. So to get to where I worked I had to walk down the corridor. Half of the corridor was actually missing; it was just a plywood wall there and the letters that spell out the word corridor above on the overhead, half of them were missing because the planet punch that far into the building and I was just surreal to realize that that had taken place and let you know I was in that area the building.”

While one of the darkest days in America has changed the lives of many Americans, Schiumo sees the event as one that also brought our country together.

“Though it was a dark day and though we did experience that tragedy, there’s a lot of good that came out of it. You know we bonded as a country, I’ll never forget the home run that Mike Piazza hit for the New York Mets in the first game back,” Schiumo said. “After that sports were suspended and everything was suspended but yeah everyone was kind of just looking for some sort of joy and Mike Piazza hit a home run and everyone just kind of like exploded and the stadium was going nuts, you know people were going nuts all over the streets run out of their house, you know screaming ‘Yes! Yes!’ I mean something so minor was something so major for a lot of people. So yeah, 20th anniversary is a big deal, and never forget 9/11, 2001.”