Mr. Schneider welcomed students back from a long and restful summer and kicked off the first chapel with a round of applause to celebrate the first full school chapel since the pandemic started in March 2020. Over the summer, students read The Red Bandana to commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Mr.Schneider acknowledged Wells Crowther’s unhesitant act of heroism and transitioned into a discussion about his personal experience during the attack. In 2001, Mr. Schneider was a new teacher at a school in New York. On September 11th, he was chaperoning a class trip in Washington DC when he had been told that a plane flew into the North Tower. At first, Mr. Schneider thought that it was just someone flying his plane too low who hit the tower. Despite the severe attack on the World Trade Center, Mr. Schneider and his students were closer to the attack on the Pentagon. Mr. Schneider recalled the cloud of smoke he saw coming from the Pentagon and how it escalated quickly from a plane crash to a domino effect of attacks. Mr. Schneider was first informed of what had suddenly happened by an anxious parent of his students on the trip, “ get my kid out of there, what are you doing, we’re under attack, get my kid out of there, let me talk to him.” Mr. Schneider talked about how every generation is defined by a youthful memory seared into its consciousness. However, the student body consisting of young men born in 2002 and later, didn’t experience the 9/11 attacks. For us it was the Boston Marathon Bombing. Though some of us may or may not be able to honestly say that we would go back up those stairs, most of us can agree that Wells Crother’s resilience, compassion, and firefighter mentality deserve the utmost respect.
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