Tragedy’s wake casts pall over area schools

West Windsor-Plainsboro district appears hardest hit.

By: Gwen Runkle
   In the face of the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center and Pentagon on Tuesday, area schools chose to remain open. And manned with counselors, volunteers and plenty of community support, most schools reported that the majority of students were doing well.
   But as more information about the tragedy continually filters into the area, the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District appears to be hardest hit.
   "We know we have a significant number of people who work in New York," said Superintendent John Fitzsimons. "Whether or not they were in Manhattan is not certain, but given the nature of our community as a suburban bedroom community with the large number of commuters that we have, we’re going to have our fair share of grieving families, that’s for sure."
   As of Thursday afternoon, the district had three faculty members with family members listed as missing, one with a son, another a brother, according to district spokeswoman Gerri Hutner. Seventeen students had family members missing. Four had fathers missing, the rest are aunts and uncles, and one grandfather of three students died, said Ms. Hutner. The grandfather was William Feehan, the assistant deputy fire commissioner of New York City, said Jon Cosse, district director of pupil personnel services, Thursday.
   "The list is not totally complete, but right now every student has been accounted for and we haven’t seen any combinations of both mothers and fathers missing."
   Crisis-management teams at the district’s nine schools have been meeting regularly to keep up with how everything is being handled, and the district has been coordinating with local mayors, police departments and members of the Ministerium, a group of 24 clergy — pastors, priests and rabbis — for additional support, Mr. Cosse said.
   According to Michael Zapicchi, principal of West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North, "The kids have been quiet and a little subdued, but they are going through the routine like any other normal day."
   He added, "There are a lot of people in the district who work in New York or have a neighbor or relative who work in New York. We are checking on anybody who has a connection, rumor or otherwise. … We are still going through our list of who is unaccounted for. So far, we have had a lot of happy endings and hopefully that trend will continue."
   School counselors, representatives of the Plainsboro Police Department and local churches were available at the school to help students, staff or others as needed, Mr. Zapicchi said.
   Similar reports came from elementary school principals.
   "We’re doing fine," said Marilyn Hynes, principal of Village Elementary School. "We suggested teachers hold a class discussion at the beginning of the day for at least 15 minutes, so kids have the opportunity to talk about their feelings and so we also have the opportunity to assure the children that it is safe at school.
   She added, "We know that one parent of a student here is still missing and an aunt and uncle have been killed. I am sure, unfortunately, there are still a few more we don’t know about."
   School counselors and the school psychologist were on site as well, she said.
   Scott Feder, principal of Dutch Neck School, described much of the same for his elementary school. And he said about 30 parent volunteers showed up to lend a helping hand.
   "One of the parents came in and said, ‘You guys aren’t going to have any time for lunch.’ He went to McCaffrey’s and brought back bags of food for everybody and set it all up in the staff room. That was great, because we weren’t thinking about food," said Mr. Feder.
   Several school officials credited how well everything was going on Wednesday and Thursday to the district’s organized and quick response when Tuesday’s tragedy first happened.
   "We made the conscious decision not to share the details of the turbulent event with the elementary students and TVs were set up in High School North and South so that the high school students could check up with what was happening during lunch or study hall," Mr. Cosse said.
   In addition, teachers rode home on several elementary school bus routes and Thomas R. Grover Middle School was converted into a shelter for children who either got home and had no one there or were not picked up after the district’s extended-day program.
   Other area schools put measures in place to assist students and faculty, but reported not having quite as many students directly affected.
   Several students at the John Witherspoon Middle School and Princeton High School concerned about parents or family members who work in New York took advantage of counseling, and the district has some parents who are unaccounted for, Superintendent Claire Sheff Kohn said Wednesday.
   Schools were in a "lockdown," with no one leaving the building for recess. School buildings were locked and visitors needed a school official to let them in, Dr. Kohn said.
   After-school activities resumed Wednesday and the district will get back to normal by the end of the week, she added.
   Officials from the Montgomery School District placed a teacher on each of the 46 buses from Orchard Hill and Village Elementary schools to counsel students who might have become distraught during the journey home Tuesday, but assistant to the superintendent Jack Rotter said there were no incidents.
   Students were instructed to telephone police if no parents were there to greet them when they arrived home, but again, he said, there were no incidents.
   "Apparently, our community wasn’t affected to the degree that we had feared it would be," Mr. Rotter said.
   Officials from Princeton Day School confirmed Thursday that one parent of a student was unaccounted for.
   Stuart Country Day School officials said Thursday that no immediate family members of any of its students were known to be dead or missing.
   Officials from The Hun School of Princeton reported it had one confirmed dead alumnus. Richard Guadagno, of Ewing, was on United Airlines flight 93, which crashed near Pittsburgh.
Staff writer Jeff Milgram contributed to this report.