Long Island students and others mark 20th anniversary of 9/11
Rebbeca Shaarschmidt's fifth-grade class performs "God Bless America" in sign language to remember 9/11 at Oxhead Road Elementary School in Centereach on Friday. Credit: Morgan Campbell
About 120 fifth-grade students gathered on the grass behind Oxhead Road Elementary School in Centereach on Friday, flanked by two American flags for a special ceremony to honor 9/11.
Their music teacher, Rebecca Schaarschmidt, who is also an alumna of the school in the Middle Country district, turned to face them as she played "God Bless America" over the microphone from her phone.
The students did not sing out loud — the COVID-19 pandemic had impacted indoor rehearsals last year and Schaarschmidt came up with another creative way to honor the memory of those who were lost and the heroes of 9/11.
As the music began, the students in unison used sign language to communicate the lyrics. Their hands moved together as they gestured throughout the song.
"I really liked using sign language. It really gave us a chance to work with the lyrics and talk about what the lyrics meant and how it related to 9/11," said Schaarschmidt, 26.
The ceremony was one of several around Long Island on Friday as schools and other groups marked the 20th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and on a plane that crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Nearly 500 Long Islanders were among the 3,000 killed that day.
At a ceremony at the Cromarty Court Complex in Riverhead, Andrew A. Crecca, the Suffolk County district administrative judge, said: "We were introduced abruptly to a new kind of evil, but as horrifying as it was, Sept. 11th also taught us valuable lessons: They've taught us just how strong we are when we unite and support one another in times of crisis. We've seen again recently throughout the pandemic that when we work together, we can endure through the unexpected and through unprecedented challenges."
At Oxhead, the children rehearsed at the end of the 2020-21 school year and picked it up again for Friday’s performance, which was the fourth day of school in the district. They performed for two groups — first- and second-graders initially and then third- and fourth-graders — in two morning ceremonies.
"It is important for them to understand and know what happened even though it was so long ago," Schaarschmidt said. The lessons typically focus on the day's heroes.
"Since they are in elementary school, we don’t want to scare them," Schaarschmidt said.
Fifth-grader Raffaella Garone, 10, introduced the student signers before the performance.
"We are doing this for the people who we lost in 9/11 and the people who survived," she said.
Morgan Schreck, 10, had a personal connection to the ceremony. Both her mother and father were NYPD members and first responders on 9/11. They are now both retired, she said.
That is how she learned about 9/11, she said, and it is important for other children to hear about it, too.
"They need to be educated about what happened in our past … and it is good to tell them more about this," Morgan said.
The morning ceremony was just one of the ways the Middle Country district was marking the 20th anniversary, said Diana Cook, the district’s director of music, fine arts and community media relations. It was to be discussed in history classes Friday across all grades, and flags have been planted all around Newfield High School. In addition, students from the district will participate in ceremonies Saturday at the firehouses in Selden and Centereach.
Cook said although her students had not been born when 9/11 happened, "their parents were alive for it and it was a meaningful moment for them so they should know the history behind it and how important it is."
With Matthew Chayes
Joie Tyrrell is a Long Island native and covers education for Newsday, where she has worked since 1998.
