September 11th, 2001.

When one of America’s most infamous terrorists attacks takes place. The first tower was hit at around 8:45 a.m. killing and injuring thousands of people. Once the twin towers were attacked, those same terrorists went after the Pentagon and hijacked another plane as well, Flight 93. The attackers wanted it to crash into the World Trade Center but the passengers and workers on board courageously fought against them and made sure at any cost that it didn’t crash where they wanted it to. Instead, it crashed in Shanksville, Penn. Everyone on board had saved thousands of innocent lives, but because of their heroism, they sadly lost their lives that day.

Many lost family, friends, partners and co-workers to this horrific act. Many firefighters risked their lives to save people trapped underneath the rubble from the tower that collapsed. It was a terrifying experience for everyone there and all over America. People from all throughout America were wondering if they should even go to school or work because they had no idea if there would be any attacks near them.

Here are a several stories from our staff here at Liberty about where they were at on Sept. 11, 2001.

Kathleen Beerviller, who works in the cafeteria, was 39 at the time. “I had come home from a walk with a friend, turning on the news and seeing what happened. It was such an eerie feeling, having no idea if I should pick my kids up from school or not.”

Mr. Smith, an ELA teacher mentioned, “I was around 15 at the time in my sophomore year of high school. My mom always used to watch the Today show and that morning they had footage of one of the towers being hit and smoking. I had no idea what happened but headed to school anyway. I was in English class when one of the girls asked why we weren’t watching the news and the teacher asked why, because the second tower was hit. After she had said that, the class fell quiet and the rest of the day was like that.”  

Ms. Sheffield, guidance counselor, “Was in English class, around 18 years old, a freshman in college. Our professor had asked us to go home. Everyone was already at home because they were told to come home from work. We were all told to fill up our cars because everyone thought that gas prices were going to be super high.”

Mr. Bertenshaw, ELA teacher, 42 years old during 9/11, had something to say about what he remembers. “I was a teacher in high school in Chicago and I was walking down the hallway in between passing period and one of the teachers ran out saying that something bad happened so I walked into the class and from the corner of my eye I saw the second plane crash into the second tower.”

Around 3,000 people in total had lost their lives to all of the 9/11 attacks. Even after two decades, people should always remember what happened on that fateful day.