High schoolers remember September 11
9:26 p.m. Thursday, September 11, 2008
Brandon Weese was in fifth grade seven years ago.
"I just remember coming to school and I was sitting in my fifth grade classroom and they turned the TV on and said that we were getting attacked," he said.
That is pretty much all the Topeka High School senior can remember about that day, but as he spoke at an assembly with the heroes of September 11 behind him, Weese said it is a day that inspired him to join the military.
"I plan on volunteering to go and serve a couple tours in Iraq when I go into the Marine Corps," said Weese, who is a lieutenant colonel in Topeka High's Marine Junior ROTC program.
Many high schoolers, like freshman Michelle Rahberg, only remember shadows of that day.
"All I remember is sitting in music class," Rahberg said.
However, that day rests in their minds as one of their driving reasons to join the military.
"We're only in high school and we have three that have joined the Marine Corps and one that joined the Army," said sophomore Mercedes Robinson, who is also a staff sergeant in the JROTC. "They're stepping up at a young age."
In fact, in the 2006-2007 school year, more than a third of the 800 graduates from Topeka Public Schools said they were going into military service.
"It all comes back to serving our community," said Curtis "Gunner" Kelley, senior instructor of the Marine JROTC program at Topeka High. "Whether you're in uniform or out of uniform."
Even if students don't remember the day, it is still a day they hope to never forget.
"If we continue with the ceremonies to remember that it did happen, it should still go," Robinson said. "Or I hope we still remember it."
The Junior ROTC at Topeka High plans on putting parts of today's ceremony into its curriculum to make sure September 11 is never forgotten.
Comments
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Sep. 12, 2008 at 10:21 p.m. (Suggest removal)parkay (anonymous)
Do they remember Palestinians and other Arab Muslims laughing and clapping and dancing and celebrating on 09/11/01?
I do. We will not forget.
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