Schools
Talking to Kids About 9/11 Hard But Necessary
Minooka Community Consolidated District 201 Superintendent said commemorating Sept. 11 is a big event at the district and as important as remembering Dec. 7, 1941.
In 2001, when the planes hit the towers of the World Trade Center, Al Gegenheimer was the principal and superintendent of Union School, a K through 8 school district between Joliet and New Lenox. His wife called him at the office and told him what happened. He then went about telling the teachers and coming up with a plan to tell the children. Collectively, they decided Gegenheimer should go class to class to tell the students.
"The wanted each (child) to have the same message," Gegenheimer said.
But, how do you tell the message to someone as young as 6 years old?
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"We told them that there was a tragedy that occurred and that two airplanes crashed into two high-rise buildings and that many people were injured or died," Gegenheimer said. "We told them, you're safe at school."
Despite needing to tell the about 200 students in the school about the tragedy, what struck Gegenheimer the most about that day was the parents.
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“There were parents who came to the school and they were bawling and they wanted to see their children,” he said. “They hugged their children and then they let them go back to class.”
"No one took their child home that day."
Gegenheimer is a parent himself and because he is a school administrator, he knew his children – two are in high school and one in junior high now – were safe at school. He hugged them when they got home.
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