None of the students in the First Responders Program at Escalon High School were even born when 9/11 became seared in the memories of many Americans … but they have learned about that dark day in U.S. history and shared the information recently with their classmates.
This year, members of the First Responders classes once again put on their 9/11 program, with several stations set up inside the high school’s Performing Arts Center, covering topics ranging from the collapse of the Twin Towers to the outpouring of support from around the world, the recovery effort and a new feature, a ‘Hall of Fame’ style row of photos and write-ups of key figures on that day, Sept. 11, 2001.
Senior Carolina Torres serves as president of the First Responders class this year and said the students put a lot of work into the presentation, with classes moving through during the day on Thursday, Sept. 11 to view the displays and hear the stories.
“It took us about two weeks to get everything ready, posters, stories, the memorials,” Torres explained.
That led up to the week of the presentations, when they started on Monday putting their displays together on site in the Performing Arts Center, then put up curtains to separate the various displays, along with setting up screens for the scrolling of names of victims from the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, DC, as well as a plane that went down in Pennsylvania when passengers fought back against the hijackers.
This was the sixth year the First Responders class has done the program and Torres said they focused more this year on honoring the lives lost, making a special effort to present some individualized stories in addition to the overall review of the tragedy.
Another new feature this year was an obstacle course of sorts, with students able to put on firefighting turnout gear, go through a darkened area, crawling under and around the obstacles, in order to get to a firefighting dummy and conduct a rescue.
“It was built for students to get a bit of a simulation of what those firefighters went through when they had to climb all those stairs (in the Twin Towers) in the heat and the smoke,” she explained.
For senior Logan Wentzell, a four-year member of the First Responders program, putting groups of students through the obstacle course was an important part of the Sept. 11 program.
“It was a little difficult to set up, we had a few setbacks but nothing’s going to stop us from getting the work done when we need to get it done,” he said of offering the simulated rescue.
Fellow senior Rylee Peavy, also a four-year First Responders member, agreed that it added another aspect to the overall program.
“It’s definitely a hard course,” Peavy said, “but we wanted everyone to feel what it was like to be a firefighter during 9/11.”
Instructors Seth and Su Davis began the 9/11 memorial event with the First Responders program at EHS and serve as advisors, though students do all the research and prepare the various presentations.
Torres said she felt the event was important for all students on campus and said it is a fitting way to recognize the service and sacrifice of 9/11 first responders, who saved countless lives while giving their own.
“I think they deserve to be honored, not just today, but every single day,” Torres said.
