BAY RIDGE — For many who were children on Sept. 11, 2001, the day is filled with memories of learning about the attacks from their teachers and the sad looks on the faces of their parents when picking them up from school earlier than usual.  

Some of those children grew up to be teachers themselves. And now, on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, they are the ones standing in front of a classroom full of students, explaining what happened on that tragic day.  

The Tablet spoke to four such teachers at St. Patrick Catholic Academy, touching on what they remember from Sept. 11, 2001, and how they teach it to their students.  

MARY KATE O’NEILL
EIGHTH GRADE HOMEROOM TEACHER 

First grade student at St. Agatha Catholic School in Sunset Park on 9/11 

When speaking about 9/11 to eighth graders, Mary Kate O’Neill said she plans to be honest about what happened while also focusing on God’s presence that day.  

“The way I always try and spin it is focusing on the stories of the people who worked in the Twin Towers but who missed the train, forgot something, had to turn back ,and wound up having their lives spared because of it,” explained O’Neill, who is also a seventh- and eighth-grade math teacher. “People might wonder, ‘Where was God that day?’  

“That’s where God was. God was saving as many people as he could. God was keeping people off the bus, off the train. They spilled coffee on themselves and had to turn back to change their clothes.”  

O’Neill said she also plans to share her 9/11 memories with the students and then ask them about what they’ve heard from their parents and extended families. She also tries to paint a picture of what life was like in 2001. 

“Not everyone had a cell phone, so people couldn’t really communicate as well,” she said. “I try to make the students understand that.” 

Reflecting on her experience on 9/11, O’Neill remembers her principal making an announcement over the loudspeaker. “And then we were praying,” she recalled. “I remember our teacher, Sister Mary, saying, ‘We’re going to pray for everyone.’ “ 

Soon after, her mother picked her up early from school.  

“I just remember the franticness of the day,” O’Neill said. We went back to our house, and we were watching Sesame Street. They interrupted Sesame Street for the coverage,” she said. “I remember my mother saying that there was nothing safe for kids to watch, so we put on a VHS tape.” 

O’Neill also recalled her mother’s relief when her dad, who worked in Lower Manhattan near the Twin Towers, walked through the door.  

“I remember my dad coming home. He had a medical mask on,” O’Neill said. “And in my childhood innocence, I remember thinking, ‘That’s cool.’ ” 

RELATED: Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?

NIKKI FREGARA
THIRD GRADE TEACHER 

Senior at New Utrecht High School in Bensonhurst on 9/11 

“We were actually able to see the smoke from the Twin Towers from our building,” recalled Nikki Fregara, who was a high school senior on 9/11.  

Fregara and her classmates learned about the terror attack from their history teacher, who received a phone call in the classroom. “His face dropped,” she recalled, “and then he said, ‘I hate to tell you this, but the Twin Towers have been hit.’ And I just remember that no one spoke.  

“We all were just looking at each other.” 

Students then looked out the windows of their classrooms to catch a glimpse of the tragedy unfolding, she remembers. Teachers then brought all of the students into the auditorium, where they watched the news on a TV set.  

“I remember feeling like ‘I shouldn’t be here. I should be home,’ ” she said. 

Eventually, Fregara and her family members all made it home safely. 

“It’s just crazy because that day feels like it just happened yesterday,” Fregara said. “That memory is so embedded.”  

Fregara expects to tread carefully when she discusses 9/11 with her students. She said she plans to tie her 9/11 lesson to the idea of heroes and service, using national parks as a unifying theme. She anticipates leading a discussion about forest rangers and Paul Bunyan, the mythical lumberjack, and segueing into a talk about police officers, firefighters, and military service members. 

“I usually go into religion talking about 9/11 because we can say those are people who actually serve and that their purpose is to help,” she explained. “And that leads to what our purpose is. We will talk about what we could do for our school, for our community.” 

KATHLEEN PALLADINO
NURSERY SCHOOL TEACHER 

Kindergarten student at Holy Rosary Catholic School on Staten Island on 9/11 

Reflecting on 9/11, Kathleen Palladino goes back to the color of the sky.   

“We happened to be walking home, and I remember the sky,” she said. “It was blue on one side. But if you turned your head to look at the other side, it was pure black.  

“It was so unnatural.” 

Palladino later realized that what she was seeing was the blackened sky from the collapse of the Twin Towers — something she didn’t understand at the time. 

“I just blurted it out to my mother, and I asked why the sky was black. My mother couldn’t answer me. She just squeezed my hand tighter,” she said. “The memories are just permanently in my brain.” 

Now a nursery school teacher, Palladino said her students are too young to understand what happened on 9/11, but acknowledged they’re aware enough to understand that something was different about that day.  

“It’s not really appropriate for them at that age to be discussing 9/11. Just understanding what happened just isn’t within their scope just yet,” she said. “But they notice things around them. They certainly notice the adults around them.  

“They notice what’s happening and that something is different than usual.” 

So, she said she approaches the topic gently with three-year-old students.  

“They need someone to guide them through their thought process. They might not understand the grand scope of it, but they see things,” she explained. “So, I will kind of broach it in that way. I will tell them, ‘Your family members might be a bit sad today. It’s a sad day.’ 

“I will explain that we all have our feelings.” 

RELATED: Children of First Responders Speak: ‘Making Sure People Don’t Forget’

ELIZABETH GIACCHINO
FOURTH GRADE TEACHER 

Sixth grade student at Our Lady of Guadalupe School in Dyker Heights on 9/11 

Elizabeth Giacchino was still experiencing the excitement of a new school year when a phone call into her classroom changed everything. The teacher answered, relayed to the students that something had happened to the Twin Towers, and told them they might see a little bit of smoke outside the window.  

There was an immediate emotional response, Giacchino said.  

“A lot of kids started hysterically crying because a lot of them had parents who worked in the city,” she added. “I was just shell-shocked, trying to take it all in.”  

When the school day ended, she and her sister walked home with their mother. On the way home, her mother found office papers that were blowing in the air.  

“They blew over from the city,” Giacchino said. “I remember that we put them in a plastic bag for safekeeping. I think we still have them.” 

She will bring up 9/11 with her students on the day, as she has in the past. She said she usually asks the students what they know about the day and how their parents experienced it. Then she asks them what they think a hero is. 

“A lot of them have parents who are firefighters or police officers,” she explained, adding that she tells students that while those first responders are heroes, some of the heroes that day did not wear uniforms or hold official titles.
“It was just some people that saw someone in trouble, and we all came together to help each other,” she said. “I try to help them realize that they can be heroes.”