A history class at Hightstown High discussed the history of terrorism against the United States on Wednesday.
By: Chris Karmiol
HIGHTSTOWN The terrorist acts of last Sept. 11 have probably secured the slot as the most significant historic event this generation has known. From here on, history teachers around the country will have this major teaching topic to discuss, digest and theorize.
This week, on the anniversary of the attacks, history classes at Hightstown High School discussed that shocking event. Jack Dunn, social studies content specialist, said his department met to decide exactly how to handle the day.
"We discussed in the department what type of focus we wanted to have," Mr. Dunn said on the morning of Sept. 11. "We investigated several different ways of preparing for today."
The department chose to have students examine a series of attacks on United States interests throughout history, such as the destruction of the USS Maine in 1898 (which led to the Spanish-American War), the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and others.
The question Mr. Dunn’s classes were asked was: "Were the attacks on Sept. 11 unprecedented, as the media often states?"
The answers from students varied. In the context of history, some students were unsure whether terrorist attacks on American interests were really anything new. But to the magnitude of last year’s attacks, and on American soil as well, most of Mr. Dunn’s high school students agreed a precedent was set.
"In my mind it was (unprecedented) and it wasn’t," said Fausto Aguirre, 15, a student in Mr. Dunn’s second-period history class. "It was never on a scale as large as this, but attacks against the U.S. have been common in history."
And whether the attacks were unprecedented in history, students expressed the personal precedence of such an event.
"Our generation has never personally witnessed what went on," said Jena Gsellmeyer, 16, one of Mr. Dunn’s history students. "We’ve never witnessed anything this close to home."
Mr. Dunn, as the eldest in the classroom, wearing a stars and stripes tie, agreed with that sentiment.
"There was nothing like that in my lifetime," he said. "For the older people, like my parents, the only thing that compares is Pearl Harbor."
At 8:46 a.m. Matthew Herman, the interim principal of Hightstown High School, announced the beginning of a moment of silence. School then resumed and the discussion returned to that unforgettable event. One student, Steve Mirabelli, 16, summed things up with: "It’s a shame it took an event like this to make everyone nice to each other."

