Residents remember 9/11

By Matt Nelson, Special Writer
   Tuesday marked the 11th anniversary of 9/11.
   Residents of East Windsor and Hightstown, including former students at Melvin H. Kreps Middle School, still recall the Twin Towers crashing to the ground — as well as the aftermath that followed — ultimately resulting in the deaths of nearly 3,000 Americas.
   Romel Penales, 22, of East Windsor, was in the sixth grade on 9/11 and recalled to the Herald that his teacher, Diane Fowler, told him that communication was down.
   ”After Mrs. Fowler told us what had happened, we went on and had a regular day at school. I also remember students getting called to the principal’s office to be sent home by their parents,” Mr. Penales said.
   Bryan Behrman, 22, of East Windsor, said that his father was taking a subway to Wall Street and walked off the train seven minutes before the first strike against the North Tower. He recalled that his teacher had told him that his dad was okay.
   ”Then throughout the day, all the teachers were crying, but they wouldn’t tell us what exactly had happened,” Mr. Behrman said. “They just said something terrible happened in New York.
   Twenty-year-old Chloe Rothbloom, of Hightstown, who attends New York University, said, “I remember my first thought was ‘what’s the World Trade Center?’ My mother received a phone call from a friend who worked in New York and commuted from New Jersey. She was with her husband in Penn Station and the place was insane with so many people trying to get home.
   Ms. Rothbloom added, “There was no chance of the two of them getting a train ride back to home until they heard an announcement for a train that goes to our stop and recognized the name. When we picked them up, they were shaking. It was really scary how traumatized they were after seeing everything they saw that day.”
   Billy Clingerman, 18, of East Windsor, who attends The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., was a second-grader when the planes hit New York.
   Mr. Clingerman said, “I got home from school and there was an air of anticipation to hear from my brother Shawn who was working in that area of New York.
   Mr. Clingerman stated, “Our moods lifted after hearing his voice, but everyone was still in shock over the events that transpired earlier in the day.”
   ”It was a very bizarre day,” said eighth grade special education teacher Karen Bravo, of Hamilton.
   Hightstown High School Assistant Principal Robert Scott learned early on that Tuesday reports that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. His next move was to let William Roesch, who was the principal of HHS in 2001, know what had happened.
   ”Mr. Roesch and I, along with the other assistant principals, met with the head of guidance at the time and we decided to contact the superintendent’s office . . . I kept a close eye on what was going on in New York watching it on TV in a storage area,” said Mr. Scott.
   Staff chose on that fateful Tuesday not inform the students that there had been plane crashes in New York, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
   Mr. Scott said that Principal Roesch had wanted to keep everyone in the building calm and deliver the students to their parents for the news of 9/11.
   ”9/11 changed my life because I think I became less naive about the world. It also created a stronger sense of patriotism and solidarity,” said Gillian Astarita, of East Windsor.
   ”I was in complete disbelief once I heard what had happened,” said Mateusz Unrat, of East Windsor.
   Mike Boguszewski, of Hightstown, said, “I don’t think I fully understood the meaning it had in my life when I was in eighth grade in 2001. As I got older, it’s something that I won’t ever get used to. It was a tragedy that directly affected our generation.”