For the third consecutive year, students in the Escalon High School EMT/Fire Science classes put on a presentation in observance of the 9/11 anniversary.

From the attack on the Twin Towers to the long road to recovery, students did research, made their display boards, practiced their presentations and then provided an extensive review of that fateful day, September 11, 2001.

Four planes were hijacked, two hit the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in New York City, one struck the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia and a fourth went down in a field in Pennsylvania.

The Monday program, staged in the high school’s Performing Arts Center, ran the entire day and several classes came through to tour it, along with school personnel and first responders from around the region.

“It’s really surprising how many students don’t know about 9/11, it really is eye-opening,” said EMT/Fire Science instructor Su Davis. “The ones that do know about it, it’s really interesting hearing the stories about their parents; so it brings about conversations in the household, asking their parents ‘where were you’ on 9/11?”

Davis noted many of the parents of students taking part in the presentation day were high school students themselves 22 years ago when the terrorist attacks occurred.

“This is the single day with the largest loss of life for first responders,” Davis added of that day in 2001. “It really is a testament to the sacrifices it takes to be in that job … I want them to know how important that is.”

For students Cheyenne Ratkiewicz and Haley Barker, both juniors, putting their informational display together about Flight 93 – which crashed in Pennsylvania short of its intended target when the plane’s passengers fought back – was a lesson in courage and sacrifice.

“How the passengers fought back,” Ratkiewicz said, “they took over and the hijackers didn’t end up getting to the target.”

Barker said knowing the passengers gave up their lives to save others is something that needs to be honored.

“I feel like it needs to have more recognition,” she added of the overall 9/11 remembrance. “Everyone knows about it but they don’t know everything about it.”

Senior Katelyn Rodriguez, enrolled in both Fire Science and EMT 2, will be heading to the U.S. Army after graduation.

“This means a lot to us and the First Responders program because it shows how First Responders took a big role in helping and rescuing on 9/11 and helping reshape New York City back again,” Rodriguez said.

For her project, she focused on those who have yet to be identified.

“There’s a lot of missing people that I didn’t expect, genuinely,” she said. “There’s over 1000 people that are still missing, currently to this day, and I just feel for those families.”

Remembering those lost and those left behind, Ratkiewicz agreed, is something that should be uppermost in mind.

“We pay our respects,” she noted. “We pay our respects to the families who lost their loved ones.”