Worst of Social Justice

[Søren]

11. Didnt found out till a few years later. So..didnt really phase me. Doubt it would of then either

[Art Vandelay]

I was 11 at the time. Really, the most I felt was annoyance that every single TV channel was broadcasting 9/11 reports, and so I had to either watch that or do something else.

In all fairness, I'm not American, have no immediate family in America and none whatsoever in New York, so I saw no reason to get emotionally invested. I remember my mother would watch (and still does, for that matter) the World News pretty much every night, so in my 11 year old mind, stuff getting blown up somewhere overseas was nothing new.

[ironbite]

I was just starting my senior year of high school at age 18.  Don't ask I was born at the end of 1983 and that's where they put me.  I remember sitting in the library on MSN messenger when a friend in Australia asked me if I had heard the news.  Yeah was pretty scary as a lot of folks in the area had parents or family that worked at the Pentagon.

Ironbite-school that week was pretty much a wash.

[The Right Honourable Mlle Antéchrist]

I was 15. I thought my friend was making it up when she told me about it on the bus ride to school (in a pre-9/11 world, being told that "a plane crashed into a building, then another plane crashed into the building next door, and another crashed into the Pentagon" was too absurd to be met with anything other than skepticism, plus she was notorious for making things up). Then I got to class (late) and discovered that she was, in fact, telling the truth.

[Zygarde]

I was about six in first grade... I didn't quite comprehend what was going on, all I know is that a lot of the adults were either angry or sad about something and I remember seeing the towers on a TV in my school cafeteria.

[RavynousHunter]

I was in...6th grade, I think.  It was kinda surreal, for me.  I didn't know anyone in NYC or the Pentagon, or knew anyone who'd have been affected, so it wasn't a massive to-do for me as much as it was for everyone else.  Made school easy for a little while, though.

[Patches]

This is making me feel old.  I was 19, in college, eating breakfast in the cafeteria and watching it on TV.  When I went to class, my professor came in and started crying.

I guess on the bright side, it's what spurred me to take a more active interest in our politics, since I really wanted to know why something like this would happen and I totally wasn't buying the "They're evil meanie pants who hate us because we're too awesome" line some outlets were feeding us.

[The Right Honourable Mlle Antéchrist]

it's what spurred me to take a more active interest in our politics, since I really wanted to know why something like this would happen and I totally wasn't buying the "They're evil meanie pants who hate us because we're too awesome" line some outlets were feeding us.

Likewise. It was the first time in my life I really paid attention to political commentary and found myself analyzing and critiquing things that were being said in the aftermath.

[Captain Jack Harkness]

I was a freshman in high school when 9/11 occurred.  If I recall, it happened during my record keeping class.  Some teachers just happened to have TVs in their classroom that had cable access, so it was something that allowed me to see actual live footage of the events as they progressed.

Of course, I don't think I was watching when the actual planes hit, or the moment the towers collapsed.

[lord gibbon]

Yeah, I was ten, and even then I knew the "they're just evil" story was bull. I remember a teacher telling us that the attackers were jealous of everything the U.S. had, and so I asked "Then why don't we share?" And she struggled to explain it wasn't like that. Then when I started hearing talk about invading Afghanistan, I thought that was stupid, since it would just cause more hate, and that was the start of both my political awareness and my disdain for religion.

[Caitshidhe]

I remember being in shop class. (Yes I took shop. I was one of a whopping four girls in that whole class.) We had tools running when the announcement came over the PA system so I didn't hear it properly. I thought I couldn't possibly have heard it properly, because it sounded like the announcement was, 'Please turn your TVs to a news station, two hijacked airplanes have just hit the World Trade Centre.'

And then I got to my next class and realized it was right. The only teacher I had that day who refused to acknowledge what was going on--not even our fear or our anxiety about it--was my English teacher. Mrs Altman. She was mean and bitter anyway but expecting your students to dissect the entirety of 'Spoon River Anthology' while there's a freaking terrorist attack going on right now was just ludicrous.

[Random Gal]

I was in 8th grade. The teachers tried to keep any word of it from getting out to the students, but someone had smuggled a radio into school that day and rumors started flying everywhere. Even then, the teachers refused to confirm or deny anything and would not turn on the news.

What I heard from various sources:
The World Trade Center had been bombed.
President Bush was dead.
Planes had crashed into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.
One of the planes was a Russian fighter jet.

And I only got the full story when I went home. I still wonder why the school insisted on keeping quiet.

[Meshakhad]

I was in 8th grade. The teachers tried to keep any word of it from getting out to the students, but someone had smuggled a radio into school that day and rumors started flying everywhere. Even then, the teachers refused to confirm or deny anything and would not turn on the news.

What I heard from various sources:
The World Trade Center had been bombed.
President Bush was dead.
Planes had crashed into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.
One of the planes was a Russian fighter jet.

And I only got the full story when I went home. I still wonder why the school insisted on keeping quiet.

We had the same rumors flying. I'd actually misheard that the Pentagon had been bombed rather than hit by a plane, although at least I had it right which were the targets. The only thing everyone agreed on was that there had been a massive terrorist attack on the US, with New York and/or DC as the targets.

In another sense, 9/11 was the day I came of age politically. That is when I developed a real passion for understanding current events, one that continues to this day.

[Cerim Treascair]

I remember being in shop class. (Yes I took shop. I was one of a whopping four girls in that whole class.)

Three of the four best car mechanics at my second high school were girls.  Short sleeves, grease on the elbows, hair done up... and if any guy dared grab their ass, they found themselves with a tire iron upside their skull.  The teachers mysteriously never saw the girls retaliate, but he wrote the guys up for sexual harrassment... 

[Caitshidhe]

I can't remember what kind of credit I took shop to satisfy. I think it was a 'Tech' credit which you could also cover with (I think) any of the shop classes, nursing, mechanic class, and physics. Among other things. I figured woodshop was good for me because my dad had a woodshop and I used to play in it.