"Everything feels so different."(September 11th attack aftermath)(Cover Story)

It was a glorious September day in New York City--bright and warm, with a clear blue sky. That beauty was abruptly shattered when two jetliners slammed into the World Trade Center. UPFRONT spoke with four teenagers who were directly affected, in profound but different ways, by what happened at Ground Zero.

Brittany Chevalier, 15, of Locust, New Jersey, lost her older brother, who was an equity trader at Cantor Fitzgerald on the 104th floor of the North Tower. Chloe Wohlforth, 17, of Greenwich, Connecticut, lost her father, who was a bond trader at Sandler O'Neill & Partners on the 104th floor of the South Tower. Abigail Deutsch, 18, a senior last year at Stuyvesant High School, felt the school shake as the towers fell just a few blocks away. David-Michael Cook, 15, lived across the street from the World Trade Center. His apartment was badly damaged when the towers fell, and his family is not sure they will ever be able to return.

For these teens, Sept. 11 is an experience they will carry with them forever. Here, they share their stories.

UPFRONT: How did you hear about the disaster?

CHLOE WOHLFORTH: I was in French class. A friend had heard on the radio that the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane, so she came in and said that. I was just like, "Oh, that's not my dad." You just don't think it will happen to you.

BRITTANY CHEVALIER: I was in biology class ... and a kid came in and said, "Did you hear that a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center?" I knew something was wrong like right away. I just felt it.

ABIGAIL DEUTSCH: Around 9 a.m., the principal came over the loudspeaker and said a small plane had hit the World Trade Center. You don't expect something as massive and horrible as this to happen, so I just assumed everything was fine.

UPFRONT: What happened to you on that day?

DAVID-MICHAEL COOK: I was at school on the Upper West Side [about five miles north of Ground Zero], so I can't say what it was like down there. I kind of regret it. I didn't even have a clue what had really happened--the real meaning of it--until about four months later, because my parents didn't let me come downtown. Basically, they were worried that I would freak out from it and be totally incapacitated by it. I think they were being way too overprotective, because it actually did more damage in the long run to not have any idea what was happening.

ABIGAIL: We went to the principal's office to find out if we could leave school and cover it [for the school newspaper]. That was when I kind of got an idea of what was going on, because there was a kid in the principal's office just sort of hopelessly on the phone. We asked him what he was doing, and he said he was trying to call his dad. We were like, "Oh, why.?" And he said, "Well, he works on the 82nd floor." And suddenly we were like, "Oh my God." There was just a pause in our brains. The principal of course said, "You're not leaving the building."

When the first tower fell, I was in band class. I didn't see it fall, but people by the windows did. We were watching TV and the newscaster was standing like a block south of us. Then she said, "Oh my God!" and I felt the building tremble. And the screen went black, and that's when the world totally went to hell. That was when it totally went crazy, and I really lost it. I couldn't stop holding hands with people.

UPFRONT: What was your reaction to the news?

CHLOE: I was hopeful for about a week--pretty foolishly hopeful. I mean, it saved me at the time, but I literally thought my dad was coming home.... Then a week later, they found my dad. He was one of the first found.

ABIGAIL: One thing that people who were nearby had, which I think people who were uptown or in Nebraska or anywhere else didn't have, was the actual fear of their own death in a more intense way than just thinking, "What if it happens here?" For me, it actually was happening here.

DAVID-MICHAEL: All the footage for the first couple of days was of the tops of the buildings, not streets that I know. It was all very Hollywood-esque. It didn't seem real .... It's kind of weird to have wanted to be down there, but just to be able to sort through it all, I kind of wish I'd seen it.

UPFRONT: What was it like back at school after Sept. 11?

ABIGAIL: My first day back, only one of my teachers mentioned Sept. 11. It was almost like, "Let's just forget it happened." And though I know people were obviously extremely upset and affected by it, people didn't express it for whatever reason. And that was just really chilling.

BRITTANY: It was hard because I had so much work to make up. And it was awkward because the last time I had been in school was when I found out.

DAVID-MICHAEL: Part of the scariness of it was that nothing changed at all. School didn't close. And half of them [the students] had never been downtown. It was hard to be around them for a while. Nobody really had any clue what was going on.... I was really the only person directly affected.

UPFRONT: What has been the biggest change in your life?

BRITTANY: I miss my brother more than anything in the whole world. But everything feels so different. You just lose some of your feeling for things. I wanted to be an actress when I got older, and I'm in the performing arts program at Red Bank Regional. I just lost my feeling for acting. I'm hoping it will come back. You have to reach way inside, and it hurts way too much.

ABIGAIL: The biggest thing was my state of mind--it went through roller coasters I didn't know existed. I felt emotions I didn't know existed.

DAVID-MICHAEL: In a lot of ways it made me a very different person.... I feel like I understand more of what life is about. Not just day-to-day living, but just being affected by something that was so huge.

CHLOE: Every morning my dad would come into my room for breakfast. He'd call me from work, he'd call me at 5:30 every night when I got home from school, and then again from the train to ask what was for dinner. He was home at 7:30 without fail every night. I was so lucky to have that, but now I miss him so much--especially when the phone rings at those same times that he would call. I think it's him, but it's not.

UPFRONT: Was there a point at which you started to feel better? What was it that helped?

BRITTANY: There was a point at which I started to feel worse. It really didn't hit me fully until like January. I still feel pretty upset. It was just really hard getting up for school in the morning and going through my day and thinking about it every minute and just realizing that this person is not going to come back--at all.

DAVID-MICHAEL: When I came downtown, I was so relieved to be back. When I heard the towers were gone, I thought everything I knew must be gone too--the whole idea of things being gone kind of spread until I couldn't imagine anything that might still be there. When I did go back downtown and saw that not everything was gone, that made me feel I better, And it made it real to me.

CHLOE: Right now I'm doing well, the best I've been doing.... Things are going well for me in school--not just academically. I'm involved in student government, and I keep trying out for things, and I keep getting rewarded, so it feels like my dad is on my side.

UPFRONT: Are there things that freak you out now that never bothered you before Sept. 11 ?

BRITTANY: I do look at planes and think, "Wow, that thing killed my brother." I think planes are the most ugly, destructive things ever now.

ABIGAIL: I just think about buildings differently. When I'm crossing Greenwich Street on my way to school, I look down and there's Ground Zero. Then I look up and there's the Empire State Building. And it's almost like a check: OK, it's still there.

UPFRONT: What will you be doing on Sept. 11, 2002?

DAVID-MICHAEL: It will probably be a very important day for me the rest of my life.... It's one of those times you just reflect on being alive.

BRITTANY: I know it will be a day of remembrance of my brother, not even thinking about Sept. 11. That evilness is just so strong that we want to stay away from that. We'd rather focus on the positive and just think about my brother.

CHLOE: I'm not a really big fan of all those giant memorials. I'll probably be here with my family.... It's the days when people don't expect it that are so hard for me, and that almost makes it worse because people don't understand. Maybe Sept. 11 won't be such a bad day, but maybe Sept. 13 will be awful.

ABIGAIL: I guess I'll be in college, and I'll be with people who weren't there, which is really weird to envision. I'll probably be really upset.

UPFRONT: How would you like others to think about Sept. 11? How should we remember the day?

DAVID-MICHAEL: The main lesson Sept. 11 taught us is that you can't forget. Those people are gone. The main thing I'm so worried about is that people will just forget, and it's already happening. It's the most disrespectful thing you can do to the victims.... It's weird because I know I can't always remember it at every minute, yet I hate myself for forgetting it. It's horrible when you realize that.

BRITTANY: I think it should be a national remembrance day, something like Memorial Day. My biggest fear is that people are just going to forget.

CHLOE: I just don't want people to ever, ever forget how many innocent people it affected.

ABIGAIL: All the talk of politics has seemed very peripheral to me. What seems essential are the 3,000 people who died.

Americans Concerned About Terrorism, but Don't Change Their Way of Life

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

* What thoughts first crossed your mind when you learned about the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 20017

* Do you believe there will be additional terrorist attacks?

* Suppose you were a journalist assigned to interview people close to the events of Sept. 11. Which of the students profiled in the article would you most like to interview? Which one or two questions would you most like to ask him or her?

TEACHING OBJECTIVES

To help students understand how life in America has changed--and how it has remained the same--in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

CLASSROOM STRATEGIES

DISCUSSION: Do students agree with journalist Eric Nagourney that the U.S. is a more "skittish" country than it was before the events of Sept. 11? What evidence does the article provide to suggest that this may be true? What evidence does the article provide that life in America is getting back to normal?

Next, ask students to discuss their own feelings. Do they think much about terrorism? Do they watch TV news about terrorism or read about terrorism in the newspapers? Have they noticed a change in security procedures at malls, sporting events, or other venues? Are they skittish, or back to normal?

Address the assertion that "vague" government security alerts may leave citizens wondering what they are supposed to do. What are the pros and cons of repeated government alerts? Are such alerts needed to keep citizens on guard for suspicious characters, or do they needlessly worry them about events over which they have no control?

Note the debate over the best use of the World Trade Center site. Ask students what they believe would be a suitable memorial. Then have them draw designs for a World Trade Center memorial. Should the site also contain offices, shops, and apartments?

CRITICAL THINKING: Discuss the comments of the New York-area teens. For example, David-Michael Cook says he now understands more of what life is about. What lesson about life might the attack provide? (Unpredictability?) Chloe Wohlforth says she does not want people to ever forget how many innocent people the attack affected. What might be done to ensure that Americans never forget the events of Sept. 11?