NYC students learn lessons of 9/11 through parents and teachers, 25 years after the attacks

Kathleen Curatolo keeps memories of her brother, Robert Curatolo, close. His badge number is tattooed on her ankle and pinned to her dress.

Robert was an FDNY firefighter who responded to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. 

"When the second tower fell, he dove under a fire truck as he was trained to do. But, of course, it was crushed. For us, we believe it's a miracle he was found two days later because there are people still waiting to recover loved ones," said Curatolo, the principal at St. Patrick Catholic Academy in Bay Ridge.

Twenty-five years after the attacks, 9/11 is a difficult but important part of the school's curriculum.

"Most of the parents in this school are firefighters, they're police officers, they're medical professionals," Curatolo said.

However, teaching this history a quarter century later presents a unique set of challenges. None of the school's current students were alive that day. But many have parents or loved ones who witnessed the attacks, responded to them or helped save lives.

For eighth grader James Buckley, learning about 9/11 meant interviewing his firefighter father for a project he presented at school.

Buckley said his father's experience also taught him about what happened in the days immediately following the attacks.

"9/11 was the worst day in our history," he said. "Days after, like 9/12, the whole country was just united and together at all times."

His father's proximity to the danger remains difficult for Buckley to think about.

"It's very upsetting that he was that close," he said.

Seventh grader Caterina Autovino also interviewed a loved one. Her mother was commuting to work on a bus when the attacks began.

"She saw the first plane crash into the north tower of the World Trade Center," she said. Autovino recalled the fear her mother described from not knowing what was going to happen next.

For teachers who experienced 9/11 themselves, teaching the history comes with a different responsibility.

Mary Kate O'Neill, an eighth-grade homeroom teacher, was a child when the attacks happened. She remembers watching adults around her try to understand and explain what was happening.

Students sometimes ask her how faith fits into a tragedy like 9/11.

"Sometimes students will ask, well, where was God that day? If this happened?" she said. "There's so many stories of people who missed the bus that day. Couldn't get on the train, never made it over the bridge...that's where God was."

O'Neill is now married to a firefighter who was inspired to join the profession after 9/11.

For her, passing the history on to students means handling the memories with care.

"It feels delicate," she said. "It's important to make sure that I pass it on correctly."

At St. Patrick Catholic Academy, educators say those personal stories are what keep the memory of Sept. 11 alive for a generation that never experienced it firsthand.

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