New York Voices; 304a; Lessons of September 11 (recut)

[narrator]: New York Voices is made possible by the members of 13. Additional funding provided by Michael T. Martin, The Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Elise Jaffe and Jeffrey Brown. [music] [another voice]: New York. [music continues] New York Voices, special edition. Lessons of September. One school remembers 9/11. [Pi Roman]: Welcome to New York Voices. I'm Rafael Pi Roman. 4 years have passed since that sunny September morning that changed New York forever. And each year on September 11th we pause and reflect on those who were lost. In the aftermath of the attacks, New York Voices spent 4 months here at Poly Prep, a private school in Brooklyn that lost 10 of its alumni. What emerged in their documentary is a portrait of hope in the midst of grief and a story of a

community that still has meaning. On September 11th, the students at Poly Prep learned of the attacks while they were in the school's chapel which was originally built to honor alumni who had fallen in battle. 50 faces lined the walls from the first and second World Wars and Vietnam. In the spring of 2002, 11 new faces would be added. [Dorkey]: I remember, uh, driving to school September 11th and it was the most beautiful day going into school and starting school again and and the excitement of that that goodness that was so easily forgotten in a few hours. [Matthews]: It started, uh, like any other day. As a matter of fact it was chapel. Chapel's the day when we're all together. What happened was my football coach, he actually comes into the chapel and my football coach doesn't normally come into chapel. So like all the football players are like, what's he doing here?

And he whispered something into the headmaster's ear, Mr. Harman. Mr. Harman gets up and says to me, and he goes, apparently a plane had struck one of the Twin Towers, right. So my my initial thoughts were you know a plane hit the Twin Towers. Like I didn't think anything more than oh my goodness you know some freak accident, a plane hit the Twin Towers. [Van Dusen]: At first everyone's reaction I think was that it was just a mistake. Like it was a tiny little plane that hit the Twin Towers. An- some people even laughed, you know, wondering how someone could do that. [Langsam]: And then I went to my next class and we saw it on TV and that's when everything just changed. Tone of the whole day, was just completely different. [Reddy]: My mom who worked in, uh, the Verizon building, which was right right like a block away from Ground Zero. Um, I tried to get through to her repeatedly but the phones, my cel- my cell phone wasn't working. No ones cell phone was really working. I think only like one person got through on a cell phone. And um, when I had finally gotten through to her office on a land line, everyone had been evacuated, so

I didn't get through to her. [Weir]: People didn't actually have reactions they just were silent for a while and then just the tears started. rushing. [Anderson]: It's interesting, we were more concerned about the families, the parents, of the current students who might be there. We didn't think at that time about the alums, we didn't think that time about the parents of past students. But more more about the students who were going to lose loved ones and friends and also probably about the friends that we might lose. Stories began to trickle in about alums and our hearts sunk because they were young and y- you know we coached them all and taught them all and you know how could that affect this group. We hadn't thought about the young alums but it was young alums that we were hearing about. People like Mark Hindy and people like Joe Hasson and Terry Gazoni. I thought immediately of of Chris Grady who I had spoke to I got a phone call about Chris and I had spoken to Chris 5:30 on Monday night. We were

playing Delbarton and he called up coach A., um, are we going to win this game this weekend? I said absolutely Chris. He said well I have a guy in my office and we have a bet and, um, I'm trying to figure out what exactly I can do to make him really suffer. So he said, uh, do you have a double extra large sweatshirt, Poly Prep football. I said well I'll see I think so and he said well I'll call you tomorrow in the morning and let me know if you do because after we beat Delbarton, I wan- I'll see you there. I want to bring the sweatshirt cause I'm gonna make him wear it in the office every day next week. I said for sure Chris, be my pleasure. And I laughed and Chris was a dear friend. And, um, 9:30 in the morning, the towers went down and I knew he was at Cantor Fitzgerald and I knew they were there and somehow I figured that they would get out, you know and I already asked about the sweatshirt I had the sweatshirt. Um, but Chris never got out and never wore the sweatshirt. We never played the Delbarton game. More and more calls came in about people who were

missing. I I heard about a dear friend of mine, John McScotley that he was lost. A parent from Staten Island one of my wrestling parents called and that was that was probably for the 2 days the most difficult time because he was just so perfect. His family was perfect. It was it was perfect. [music] [singing] Woke up, fell outta bed. Dragged a comb across my head. [Langsam]: Kinda shows what it was like for me at least, the morning started out, it was fine and which is actually the second part of the song kinda just a typical day in the life and then, uh, other part, beginning part. It's kind of somber section, talks about the tragedy of one of their friends actually dying. [singing]: I read the news today oh boy. About a lucky man who made the grade. [Langsam]: And then that's exactly what that day was for me. Just 2 different completely different sets emotions and feelings.

[Anderson]: As as alums were calling up what are we going to do. Young alums, coach A, what are we doing to do. This desperate need to do something. I think it was a national need that you could see in response to just try to manage and understand how they lost their friends, were their friends lost, I have to find my friend. Friends on the playing field, friends in the classroom, friends and antics in college, friends getting in trouble together. Closest of friends and then our thoughts turn to what can we do now. The families have no place to go and immediately begin to think of the parents. And from then on it was what can we do for the families. [Hasson]: I have 3 children. Um, my oldest son Joseph is the one who's missing from the World Trade Center. Beautiful, bright, happy, kind. Everything you could want as beautiful inside as they are outside. [Della Pietra]: Joey is 9 years younger than me. So when he was born I was already a

young kid, so I I watched him from the day that my mom gave birth to 'em. There wasn't anything that I missed. Then he beca- became like you know my little brother then he became the annoying little brother for a while and then it kind of our our relationship kind of evolved to me taking on like a mother role. It was sort of like a mother son role. And then, um, as he got older and I realized that Joey didn't need a mother as much anymore, we became sister and brother again and then at the very end, we became best friends. You graduated from Columbia and after graduation he moved back home with my mom. My brother Chris called, umm, the friend of his who he graduated from Poly with Joe Hasson, who was working at Cantor Fitzgerald at the time and asked Joe if he could kind of help Joseph in the interview process at Cantor which he gladly did. And, uh, Joseph was offered a job in the training program, um, of Cantor Fitzgerald soon after graduation.

He was a bond trader. He was literally on top of the world. He loved his job, he loved the people that he worked with. He loved what he was doing and he was very good at it. He was very good at it, came naturally to him. [Hasson]: In the 1993 bombing, it was, um, tremendously frightening thing for me as a mother knowing your son is working in this building and the hours that we had to wait before we realized that he was out and he was down and he was safe you know were excruciating. But of course, the outcome was good that time and he did come out and he lived to tell the tale of how awful it was. I remember him coming home his face was awful and black smoke in his his shirt he had a white dress shirt on you know was all black I mean an- and he told how he helped people come down the stairs because it was pitch black. Of course we held out hope that he was he was he could have then he got down and we kept remembering 93 when he did get down. He called Mary that morning.

Actually I think he called her twice. And I think he was scared but he was true to himself. He was brave you know but brave people are afraid so that's a normal feeling. And, uh, he told her he loved her you know and he said goodbye. [Della Pietra]: And it I guess it wasn't until the first building went down that I realized that he could not be coming home it's th- it's it was then and up until then I had complete faith in him that he'd be out. [Anderson]: You can't forget the faces. You can't forget the people the real people. You can't just look at names on a plaque and understand the smile of a Joe Della Pietra, of a Joey Hasson, of of a Terry Gazzani, a Mark Hindy of of all of them. And I didn't have words over the phone I didn't couldn't. I had trouble negotiating and moving off this campus just stayed here and was here for a lot of

alums who came by who wanted to reminisce who were just walking aimlessly and struggling with it and and then having yet other alums, young alums looking for a direction, looking to accomplish something, looking to do something. That, uh, we had a conversation with our, uh, director of, uh, development and the headmaster and we talked about a tree and, eh, somebody else is gonna do a tree, it's gotta be more than a tree we this this is they have no place to go. We have to provide them with a place to go. And who wants to go any place other than a garden so let's builds a garden. And we talked about the slate, we talked about the chairs and we picked out what it would look like because the garden would be prolific, it would continue to grow, it would live, it would thrive, it would regenerate itself every year. You could build on a garden, you could create a garden. Having something for homecoming so that when when our alums and our families came back we could sit down and we could remember and we could reflect and we could provide some

solace for those families. [Hasson]: I told my therapist I said, um, I'm so glad I didn't have to see my son in a coffin in a funeral parlor because I think that would have devastated me more that way. You know I'm actually his spirit is so around me and so alive that I I I'm and that garden at Poly is so much nicer than a cemetery would have been. It's so much more comforting because he spent some of his most wonderful years and his most cherished friendships come from that place. [Della Pietra]: You know it's weird it's just the memories I had of Poly before September 11th were um, fun and, um, just the best years of my life and obviously I went when back when Joey was there and I relive them all over again. But those are gone. It's where I go to you know find some peace and I talk to 'em. I plant a little bit and I look at his picture and

it's just a quiet, beautiful place. I guess I go there to just talk to him in by myself. [Anderson]: We needed them there. I think part of w- we really needed him there. We needed those families to come back and to be home and to understand we needed to do it for them. From those young alums from that Anthony Tatore and that Jason Bassel who said what are we gonna do coach A what are we gonna do. From those 2 moving forward, this whole community needed to do this and needed to give them something. For something so substantial and it just hasn't stopped. Um, and knowing all along, it doesn't make a difference. It wasn't gonna change anything. It wasn't going to change anything. [dramatic music plays][Bossert]: I remember when September 11th happened, telling myself

to forget about my impulse to make something dramatic out of it because I do that when I see something dramatic you know I want to write a a book or a script or something fictional usually. Um, maybe nothing I could really give creatively that would be as compelling as the thousands of true stories that there are out there. Yeah whenever I first tell people that I've written a musical by September 11th, I'm always on the defensive. I say listen it's gonna sound tacky it's gonna sound awful but it's about September 11th, it's a musical, yeah I know. I guess people like working on it because it's it's an excuse to meditate on it. I don't know. [music begins] It's been so many times babe, I've seen you left out to dry, I'll still be here to catch all your tears when you cry, this

this is why this is why this is why I can't tear myself away, this is why this is why, by your side forever, I shall stay, and I hope, and I pray, that you'll come around to me [group singing] [solo singer]: And the word is spoken, up to the sky, let's all try to live a little, before we die. [Cox]: I I think it's in works

of art that for me personally, I understand the world I understand myself and I understand events and and Emily Dickinson writes this great moment where she says imagination lights the slow fuse of possibility and works of art are about metaphors about helping us understand and making connections and relationships. Uh, both to ourselves and to events outside of ourselves and to other people, constantly drawing us together but that's the great thing about metaphors is that they don't provide answers. They just provi- or sort of encourage us to ask more questions and to keep seeking other ways to understand without coming up with absolutes. [actor] You can't stop thinkin' about it, you can't stop thinkin' about it. I can't stop thinkin' about it. Why don't you think about that before you start white whining. And that's what I call it, white whining. It's like how I was sleeping, somebody paints a Hitler mustache on my face and suddenly the whole city is ?inaudible? and I can't rub it off, no. I have to sit here and wait for everybody to forget who Hitler was. I put a god damn flag on my house. Just like a lotta people. Yeah, but for me if I mean if I didn't, I'm either unpatriotic and a terrorist or I'm patriotic but just to kiss up to the native sons and I'm still a terrorist. I either cut my hair just like all the white kids at school

and have my parents yell at me day and night about how I'm disrespecting my heritage [crowd laughs] or or I keep my hair the way they want it and hope to God nobody spits the hell in my face. [Nazmi]: Me and Cameron had talked about me doing that part, playing the confused Muslim, Indian kid basically. So I'd talked to him about how like my experiences stories I've heard around my, uh, neighborhood and uh like a lot of that was in that speech I'd given. Like my mom, uh, usually does yell at me about wearing my hair up or something or she wants me to look more proper but now that I remember I actually pretty distinctly a week or two afterwards she would tell me to gel my hair up and spike it so that I looked a bit more like the average

white kid that would be going to the school. That way [scoffs] I dont know on the train I would I wouldn't get attacked or something. So I've never actually felt like that but I dont know I've seen my parents go through that so. [music] You're packing a suitcase for a place, none of us has been a place that has to be believed, to get seen. [new speaker]: The whole day I was just so confused and scared. Like I was running around school trying to find my brother and trying to get out. I just didn't know what to do and like I never really stopped to think about it. I just really knew it was something horrible and it was just it was frightening me. And then like when I home and I was I was sitting there with my parents I just still didn't know what to think. And then when we were watching the telethon ?inaudible? and U2 performed this song, it's really made me like, it's just really slow and it's like kind of those songs you hear in a sad movie and it just

kind of it just kinda slowed me down realized ya know this is what happened. And it gave me a first opportunity to really think about it. So now Whenever I hear this song it's like it just reminds me of that day and how I felt and how like I eventually calmed down. [Anderson]: While we as an administration tried to deal with the tragedy of the alarms, the students themselves experience the grief of one of their own. [Reddy]: I left Poly around 2:00 o'clock, not having gotten in touch with my mom. I went to see my neighbor and then my mom finally came home. So that was a big relief. And, um, my mom right away was trying to call my aunt and my aunt Maura was the type of person that you know anyone would want to be around. She was the life of the party, always smiling, always laughing. And she also loved to help people. And I think that's why she became a police officer in the first place. That's mainly why my mom was so worried about her to begin with because she knew that Maura would be

the first one on the scene as soon as she knew what was going on. She was the first person to call in the attacks, she's the first person who saw the plane hit and to phone it in over the radio. She took her partner down to the site and immediately started evacuating people. She was in the South Tower. There's a pretty famous picture in the Daily News of my aunt bringing a man out. When the tower collapsed she was we think she was in the third or fourth floor third or fourth floor still helping people. On September 13th, I kind of wanted to go to school. Kind of didn't. I walked into the chapel that morning. I sat in the back row. As soon as Mr. Harmon opened the chapel, I just kind of let it all out. Things that I had kept pent up around my family because I just I can't cry around my family. I just I feel like I have to be the strong one because my family members are very open with their emotions. Someone who I didn't really talk to all that much who just happened to be sitting next to me saw the fact that I was crying and just put an arm around me and you know I I

think I'll remember that for the rest of my life because it was just something that really touched me that someone who I didn't really know and I didn't really talk to all that much someone who I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that to would help me in that way. And it it really was a comfort. And they just kept their arm around me the whole time. While I needed to, uh, cry. Most touching part of chapel was when Mr. Hussain got up and he basically said what I've been wanting to hear the whole time and that was not to harbor any feelings against someone just because of their religion or just because of their nationality. And I think that really that really represented something that I was trying not to do. I was trying not to, um, think less of, um, Islam or be anti-Arab because I think that that's just something I would never want to be. [Hussain]: I I spoke in front of chapel for the first time and I hadn't really planned it out. Like They they kind of they wanted me to speak. Maybe not the best of

introductions but, uh, I mean it gave me a chance to to speak in front of kids for the first time. This is my first year teaching at Poly Prep and this is my first year teaching, uh, curriculum in which, uh, the history of the Middle East was ya know a significant, uh, portion of the course. Do not flip this over. I want cha look at it and spend a couple minutes discussing this person is. Okay, what's their story. All right, where are they from. [student]: You look at the picture. They don't look like a couple that should be together. He looks much more raggedy, he looks much more well not as wealthy. She has the jewels bling blingin'. She's like, well a prize for him I don't know how else to say it like he bought her somehow with money or something and how she she's really just there because she has to be. [Hussain]: Kareem, last word before I tell you who it is. [Kareem]: I think this is ?house boy? [Hussain]: Okay, wow so we have like a third kind of this is a three dimensional, alright Michael, you've been zinged again. This is

flip it over. This is Benazir Bhutto. Okay. She attended Radcliffe College in Cambridge. Okay. She was elected prime minister of Pakistan in 1988. [laughs] Let me tell you how off you were. In office however, Bhutto opposed the imposition of strict Islamic law. She was the first woman elected to lead a primarily Muslim country. By contrast, uh, and this is just kind of a sub note, over 10 years later, no woman has been elected president or even vice president in the United States already made that point. They're going to judge. We're all going to judge. We live in a society in which the media does a lot of the judging for us and we're not given the respect or recognition that maybe we need you know or we should be also making some judgments. I've been here all my life and I've never thought twice about what I would do if America was attacked. I've never thought twice

about you know where my loyalty lies. Every Muslim in America realizes that there's this kind of undertone of hate and fear and misunderstanding, this extraordinary level of misunderstanding. I think that of all the places that I could have been I'm really glad that I was a teacher and I was in school. You know here I could talk about it, here I can learn about it here I could teach about it and there were people that were willing to listen [new speaker]: ?inaudible? had some friends in there but I ?inaudible? personally. This is actually Puff Daddy I'm Missing You. You know I I didn't really lose anybody but I know how it feels and for all the people that died ya know. [singing] Thinking of the day, when you went away, what a life to take, what a bond to break, I'll be missing you. [speaker]: Kinda hard with you not around, know you in heaven smiling Down. That

that's what really touched me there. [Song] Everyday we pray for you [Anderson]: A few miles from the Poly campus is our lower school. The events of September 11th also touched this community. [music plays] [teacher talks loudly] [music continues] [teacher]: Keep going Sophie! [O'Berg]: The morning of 9/11, we came in and we got, um, papers together what we we're going to do for the children. The children came in, we greeted them. Uh, I remember exactly where I was standing where Mary and I heard this loud noise and we both looked at each other and we said kidding around, it's not supposed to rain is it? And then she left the room. I don't know what for. And when she came back she called me aside and she was crying and I said what's the matter. And she said the towers

have been hit. And I said what do you mean the towers have been hit? She said a plane went through one of the towers and it didn't register. I was numb. I didn't feel anything. And then I went upstairs to our school library where you could see it and I and I started hysterical crying. I called my mother right away. She works down there at, um, 25 Broadway. I was most concerned with her and she was hysterical crying. She saw the whole thing. Her office felt the shake. And um I was more worried about her and she had spoken to my father who was also working that day and he called my brother's firehouse and he didn't speak to u- they left already. My brother was supposed to get off that morning and come to our house. But he didn't get relief his relief never came. I was honestly wo- I wasn't worried about my father and my brother. Uh, growing up I never worried about my father going into work. It was like any other job. My father has been a fireman for 31 years. He retired on 9/11. And when we got home we, um,

my father called and he said it doesn't look good. And I said what do you mean it doesn't look good. He's fine he's fine. Said no he's not I can't find 'em I can't find 'em. So I said okay I said maybe he's out in Long Island maybe he made it out to his house where he lives with his wife. And then, um, it hadn't I don't even know I lost some track of the times of that day but it was night because I remember it was dark and my father was walking up the stairs and there was someone behind them so I thought right away it was my brother. But it was just the guy that he worked with. He was covered in white. Uh, his eyes were all bloodshot and he was hysterical crying saying he's not you know he's gone he's gone. Um, they found his shoe on the fire truck. Nobody from his company was found. Who knew that day walking out of lower Poly's doors that my life would

change forever. Okay, come on. This keeps me going. The kids absolutely keep me going. I told the parents when I first met the parents we had a meeting in October and I told them that I'm that I can make it through the days because of their children their smiles. My mind is off of it all day because I don't have a second to think about it. I think people assume that they're too young to understand what has happened. But they're not. Just because they don't talk about it doesn't mean that they don't understand that when they play with blocks on their free time or cubes they often build the towers. And that was happening for a while. And one child actually you know knocked it down and said this is what happened to it. And then another student had said don't do that you know we didn't want that to happen to it. Let's if we're gonna build it let's keep it up the way it should be. So they know. I hope that

they will know that to remember the people. I know that with the gift drive, they really focused on the firemen and how they helped other people and how we told them even civilians are heroes. Everyone who died are heroes that day and I hope that they will remember that. And take that away that there were a lot of good people and a lot of good things were done on that day and we did we were a part of that good thing how we helped out. [Anderson]: As the year went by, we created a scholarship program. The families approved of an idea to link each of the scholarship students with one of the 11 families who lost a son. [Harman]: We're trying to find present students who share qualities with the boys who were lost. [Anderson]: We have distinguished achievement awards every year that are given to in our special reunion classes and the headmaster said we're not gonna do that this

year. These are gonna be our distinguished alums and we then move and took that one step further. We talked about scholarship programs and name scholarship programs so there would be a legacy. And again it would be something that the parents could hold on to to visualize, could see that would always keep things as we saw them young people, alive forever. [new speaker]: Joe Hasson another [another person quietly] 'Joe Hasson' big, larger than life. Joe was was was ki- fairly small in stature but he was a powerhouse in so many ways. He was a great athlete. This is somebody who's just has the biggest personality in the world. [woman]: Olivia Rotondi is the only lacrosse player, which Angela mentioned that the family specifically requested. She's the only lacrosse player receiving financial aid but she happens to be dynamic. [man]: She's terrific. [multiple people talking over each other] yeah, Spunky, Rotondi, She's a great kid, And he's a great kid so that's perfect. [woman]: R-o-t-o-n-d-i [Anderson]: In April, Poly holds an alumni reunion. For the first time, the students met the

families of the 11 who were lost. I can just remember you know Joe Hasson, looking at Joe Hasson's dad and and seeing him and not knowing what to say. [woman]: See how lucky I get, This is Paulette Hasson, Joseph's mother, This is Olivia. [Hasson]: So Happy to meet you Olivia. [Olivia] This is a button and [Hasson] thank you, everyone's wearing them. [Olivia] yes [Hasson]: I wear it because I feel very close to Joseph when I wear it. I can touch it and I feel like he's right here with me. I'm never without my little button. So i'm So happy that you've received the scholarship and that you're a, uh, lacrosse player. Joe would be thrilled, really. [Olivia]: Thank you. [Hasson]: This is his son. [Mary]: Hi Olivia. [Hasson]: And his beautiful wife Mary. [Mary]: Nice to meet you. [Olivia]: Nice to meet you too. [man] How do you do?

[Hasson]: She received Joe's scholarship. [man]: Really? [Hasson]: First one, yeah, [man] oh that's nice. [Hasson]: and she's an athlete and a scholar and a nice representative. [man]: How come she's not ?inaudible? [laughter] [Mary]: I think Joe would be very pleased with the choice. [Hasson]: Absolutely. [Olivia]: Thank you, I'm very honored and I can't express it really. [Hasson]: You like her, huh, Joe? Little Joe likes you too. [piano playing][woman]: Welcome to this service of remembrance. [indistinct singing] [Anderson]: There have been so many memorials and doing this again was gonna bring it all back to everyone but it was something we had to do because they all worked together on that day. [head speaker]: After September 11th it became eminently clear to all of us here at Poly, who our distinguished alumni should be this year. And so today we honor 11

Poly boys and most importantly we will celebrate their lives. [new speaker]: Andrew Anthony Abate class of '82. [new speaker]: Vincent Paul Abate class of '79. [new speaker]: In both work and play, Vincent and Andrew spent their lives together as brothers and friends. On September 11th, Vincent and Andrew were together again on the 105th floor of tower one in the officers of Cantor Fitzgerald. [bell ringing] [new speaker]: Joseph Della Pietra class of 1995. [head speaker]: The Della Pietra's knew that Joseph was special. They all saw the world more beautifully through his eyes. Upon his promotion, the head of the desk was heard to say, I'm afraid that one day I'm gonna be working for Joe. [bell ringing] [new speaker]: Terrance Gazzani, class of 1995. [another speaker]: He had a glowing smile that would warm the hearts and a comical wit

that would lift spirits. Terry made all of us feel the security that comes with knowing that you are loved. [new speaker]: Husband, father, son, brother, friend, Christopher Michael Grady. [head speaker]: Each and every time his name is mentioned phrases like what a great friend and what an amazing husband and father. Inevitably- [new speaker]: Mark Hindy, class of '91. [head speaker]: He pursued his dream of playing professional baseball. He packed up and drove out to Ogden, Utah. [speaker]: My good friend, confidant, William R. Peterson, class of 1972. [head speaker]: When fellow Poly alumni moved onto his block in Breezy Point, Billy he was thrilled. He was happy to be reunited with his old buddies. [speaker]: Lars Peter Qualben, class of 1969. [speaker]: Lars loved being a father and was immensely proud of his family. [speaker]: Andrew Ira Rosenblum, class of '74. [head speaker]: Next to his family, golf was Andrew's greatest passion. His greatest pleasure was taking

his boys out onto the course with him. [speaker]: My brother Joe Mascali, father of Christopher Mascali, class of 2001. [head speaker]: A son, a student, a friend, an athlete, a loving husband, a father, a caring provider, a partner, a worker, and a firefighter. [speaker]: Joseph John Hasson III, class that 1985. [head speaker]: On September 11th shortly after the plane hit the tower, Joe called Joe called Mary from the 105th floor of the world trade center, to tell her he loved her. [footsteps] [bell ringing] [church music playing] [Anderson]: I know you move forward because you do. And I know you put things behind you because you do.

But you also take it with you. And we all want to keep them together. They will all be together in the chapel and they will always be together. There was something comforting to the families about the fact that the Poly boys on that day, were all together. [bus engine] Each person deals with grief in different ways. For the Poly community as a whole, the second part of the school year was a study in contrast. For many people, life returned to normal. But for some life will never be the same. [speaker]: Those kids who died so innocently, just brought home the need to connect our thinking and our lives with the whole world.

Any death of an innocent person, particularly when they're young is is is a challenge for someone who who who believes in a in in a god that's righteous and and and good. How can this happen? And of course th- the answer probably is that God did not do it. We did. We human beings have failed. You have to learn from pain. You learn the most by going thr- working through pain and the pain of this, hopefully, will will cause us all to take a look at what we can do better. And this is what the hope, uh, you have with youngsters in in in chapel in school. That they will do, be a little more sensitive, a little more aware than we have been. That they learn ways to solve issues other than violence. And the youth is the hope. It's too late for me and for you. But it's not for young people.

And the young people when they're really moved and concerned about something, are usually right. I. [speaker]: Heyyy. [indistinct chatter] [Bossert]: I mean this year is definitely, for me at least, been just defined by September 11th and I don't know how much further it's gonna go whether it's gonna go the whole decade or what. But I'm definitely gonna probably look back at this year and it'll just it's just be completely dominated by it and in in my memory. [Breckenride]: I keep thinking about it from like an engineering point of view. Cause I guess I don't know that's kind of when I really got excited about being an engineer. Honestly, I mean I always wanted to but when I read the first article about why they fell, I remember thinking like this is what I want to do I want to I wanna I wanna build things that aren't gonna fall down. [speaker]: Right. [Reddy]: One of my, um, old teachers used to say that morality's something you that you do

when no one else is looking. And I think that that came into my life more so after September 11 and after I recognized what what a big sacrifice that my aunt had made to do the right thing, to help people, show her bravery. Um, now just everything I do I try to think of if my aunt would do it or, um, would that be the right thing to do. And more than ever it's really affecting my life in that way. [Weir]: I can't really say if the school changed as much because now it feels like it like September 11th almost didn't happen because we're starting to recover. We recovered so quickly. So I would say that the effect was really short in a sense. But long term, it's still there because we still think about it and directly, I would say it affected us mostly like academically. Um, we were really distracted for a while but once we got back on course, we were we were right there again. [girl]: Yeah I really need to know who did the Berlin Wall. Who erected the Berlin Wall? Please say it was it Khruschev? [boy]: No. [other girl]: Who?

[boy]: Wait, yeah, it was Khruschev. [girls shout happily] [girl]: Ah Sweet! Yes! I got it right! [other girl]: I totally guessed that one. [new speaker]: I don't mind if the waning hours are as slow as they can be. Maybe that's a subconscious reason I'm incomplete in 2 classes. Well I'm the only person I think in the in the grade who hasn't handed in a, uh, a thesis and an outline. If I could finish it by the 5th of June. [indistinct chatter] You wanna hold onto this, right you wanna fail me? you can I'm a senior so you can see me one last time [teacher]: No no no no no I want you outta here. [student]: Oh oh. [teacher]: My best moment my best moment is when I hear, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, and everybody marches. [student]: Okay, I'll be marching don't worry. [teacher]: I hope so. [boy]: I am waiting for my date. She has not arrived yet. [woman]: None of us had

bodies like these girls, when we were their age. [laughs] I can assure you on that. [chattering] [boy]: I'm afraid for my life right now. [girl]: Okay, how does it go? Like that? Okay but how do I do I just dig it? [laughs] [indistinct chatter and clapping] [announcer]: Molly and Jeff. [clapping] Linda and Cole. [clapping] [Matthews]: The world for me and I would assume for my generation, will be a much more valuable place. When somebody gets killed by a drunk driver, you know it's one person and they die. And you know, people feel bad. People read the article. People get mad at drunk drivers things like that. However when a group of thousands of people die, at the same time,

people start to realize and think you know life is short. Now I feel like I live life on a higher level. Everything's more valuable everything's more important. I cherish everything that much more. [kids shouting] [speaker]: How do you move forward from it? [Anderson]: Just understanding coming from that position of empathy, as as one family after the other moves through that garden and g- they go from a p- a period of of gratefulness to a community. And the same token, not understanding and the the sense of anger at at sometimes a country that they feel has let them down. [Della Pietra]: 2 months ago I opened the mail and it's a little cardboard, uh, insert into an envelope and I take it out and it's to the Della Pietra family we are

deeply saddened by the events of September 11th yada yada yada. And it's signed by by George and Laura Bush. And I just hold it up and I look at my husband and I'm like a postcard? A postcard. What in God's name is this? I just can't imagine. Did they think that that was supposed to make me feel like they care because they sent us a postcard? There's the FBI, there's the secretary of defense, there's the CIA and there's all these cabinets and departments and and officials and what what are they doing? Like where were they? You know people tell me all the time and you know, therapists and you know medical doctors that you have to concentrate on what you had, instead of what you don't have. And that's that's impossible. Because my brother was 24 on September 11th and I shouldn't be looking at pictures. I shouldn't be thinking about memories. [O'Berg]: Um, we are having a memorial.

He hasn't been found. We were hoping that he was going to be. But it doesn't look that way. So I'm hoping that not that that will change anything, but I guess that will be a time where you can say okay well now you have to go forward. [Della Pietra]: I think that I'll be alright doing what I'm doing now but, umm, I don't know if I'll ever be okay. The okay that I'd like to be, it's just gonna be different. It's just gonna be someone different that's all. And that's what I'm getting used to. That's that's my next quest is just accepting the new me. And I like the old one a lot. [Hasson]: At 19, uh, my son Joseph had a near fatal car accident on his way back to school. And I think that experience, going through it, sort of, uh, made me a stronger person. And made me appreciate not that I didn't appreciate my son before that, but made me appreciate how

precious and how fleeting life is and how in a matter of seconds it could all change. Believe me if there was a choice if staying in bed would make him come home with my head under the covers that's where I'd be. But I know that's not the case. So I think he would have been very proud that he he died like a a soldier would die, really. And I have no doubt that he was helping people up until the very end because he was a very very strong, determined young person. So I go on to honor my son, to honor the wonderful spirit that he had. His joy and zest for life that in 34 years, he probably lived more than people at 74 live. You know so I do it to honor him. And that's the way I choose to do it. ya know I'm nobody special. Just the mother. What I always wanted to be. [O'Berg]: I am looking forward to having children.

I think it will be hard because I always pictured it with my brother. Um, when he had kids and I would have kids. I f- I really feel that I lost my my future. A big part of my future. You always know that you're gonna lose your parents like that's just you know they're gonna grow old and you can come to terms with that. But you always think that your sibling is the one who you're gonna carry on the traditions with. And I lost that. But I do believe that he'll be around. He is always around and he'll be hopefully my kid's, um, guardian angel. [Garth Brooks-We Shall Be Free] When the last thing [music plays]: And we notice, is the color of skin. And the first thing we look for is a beauty with me, when the sky's and the ocean- [girl]: It really gave hope to me that if you look around you do see all the people having their American flags out

you do see everybody just going that extra mile just to show some more kindness. So though this was such a tragedy, showed that good can stem out of what looks like that. [Anderson]: The only conversations I've had with those that are ready to have it and conversations that I thought a- when I was taking on a role of consoling is take what's best and take it with you and move forward. Always take what's best. They lived and lived. I mean yes, they were young but they lived. And it was ironic that it was to Lisa Della Pietra and her family. At a party honoring her brother and Terry Gazzani, that I met Dina. [Della Pietra]: I met Steve in 1982. And I'd know Dina for a very long time but, um, we had the memorial birthday party for Joseph in the city on March 9th and, uh, worlds collided I guess because I knew from 2 different parts of my life. [Anderson]: I met Dina

and in a very short period of time, we're now engaged. And we're both inextricably connected to this tragedy in a very very positive way and a very meaningful way, in a way that's gonna change both our lives. And we'll always have a great appreciation for this. And when we do get married, we'll get married in the garden. [graduation music plays] [teacher]: Commencement is a very sad time for a teacher. If you're a coach it's very sad cause you've lost your star players. But if you're a teacher, you lost kids you've spent hours with in the classroom. [announcer]: Commencing today, the road for your children now takes new and exciting directions. [clapping] [student]: You've heard the speech I had to dig everything up. I had to go on therapy myself because I was given

the job of finding the meaning of 4 years but even more, uh, 8 years for me and many other people in the senior class. And I found it. I I fou- I found the meaning. I I know what the meaning is. But I'm not gonna stand here and make it easy for you. I'm not gonna tell you what the meaning is. Ready to go out and ruin the world. [laughter] Or maybe fix it, yeah, sorry, uh, I mean fix it. Yeah Maybe we should try to fix it. You know at least some of it. I don't know maybe Christine Capone will fix something I don't know but that's about it. [laughter]: And, uh, Christina Galkin as long as she can keep all those whales alive and ignorant of the rest of [teacher]: I think just in what we build here at Poly, of with this rich, textured community of diverse, young people. Who've learned to take pride in that diversity. And I've learned to rejoice in it and learned to ?inaudible? from people who are very very different than me

To me is confirmation that you can make it happen. If you can make it happen you can make it happen in a larger world. [clapping] The messages don't change. I think the tragedy of September 11th is an occasion for everybody to be a little more sober, a little more thoughtful, to think a little more about the why. [speaker]: I would now like to declare the academic year 2001- 2002, officially over. [cheers] [teacher]: Graduates are always boys or girls because you don't see them grow up after they leave. They're still there. The memories remain. So there's a certain immortality for us. So you hold on to those memories. And it will always be. [trumpet]

[Pi Roman]: You know as it has for the past 3 years, this morning the school held a special assembly to commemorate September 11th and to reflect on those who were lost. Later in the fall, the students will once again plant flowers in the garden and scholarships will be awarded in the name of the 11 lost members of the Poly prep community. A ?inaudible? dates now. Since 2001 when our cameras were at Poly, all the seniors we met, Olivia, Allison, Cameron and the others moved on to college. Joe Hasson's son little Joe turned 4 and will be attending Poly prep lower school next year. Steve Anderson and his wife Dina,

who were married in the memorial garden, gave birth to a daughter and plan on sending her to Poly when she's old enough. Lisa Della Pietra who lost her brother Joey, has also come back to Poly where she works in the development office. And Pat O'Berg still teaches first grade and is engaged to be married next year. As life moves on at Poly so does for a city that will stop briefly to mark a time in a day that will stay etched in memory forever. For New York Voices. I'm Rafael Pi Roman. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next week. [music plays] Out of ashes, we shall stand, out of ashes, we shall find and give in find and give in one day, out of ashes, we shall rise, out of ashes, we shall get ?inaudible? out of ashes, oh oh oh [narrator]: New York Voices is made possible by the members of 13.

Additional funding provided by Michael T. Martin The Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Elise Jaffe and Jeffrey Brown.