Sept #11th 2001 I remember

September 11th 2001.

Do you remember what you were doing that day? I certainly do.

It's exceedingly rare that I can say I remember any particular day with clarity, save my wedding day and a few other memorable ones like the birth of my daughters...but I do remember Sept 11th, 2001.

I was teaching one of the two Primary 7 classes at Kintore Primary School at the time, though we were not actually in class, or even in school, that day. Both Primary 7 classes were having a very special  'day out'.

Gordon Barracks - Wikimedia Commons

At that time my local authority, Aberdeenshire Council, held special events for Primary 7 classes every year and one of those 'special events' was a trip to the Gordon Barracks, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen.

Coach loads of P 7 kids from different schools descended on the facility (used by various organisations including the Territorial Army). We were not there to admire anything directly related to an army regiment - the intention of the trip out of class was to improve each pupil's awareness of  what to do in the event of an emergency.

A number of personnel from different Emergency Services volunteered their own time (when not on their duty roster) to organise the training at these events. Around the barrack blocks, they had set up 'situations' with associated scenarios for the kids to react to, and learn from- with expert guidance along the way.  Examples might include: the Ambulance Service doing basic First Aid training; the Fire Service instructing on how to evacuate a building safely when smoke -filled; the Police /Telephone '999' Response Team instructing on the correct way to make an emergency call, ensuring that the situation had the best responders for the problem; Road Safety / 'stop times' for vehicles...as in a 30 mph collision with a P7 pupil could kill or seriously maim. All scenarios were interactive and highly interesting for the kids.

During these sessions, there were times when the teacher and other accompanying adults would be superfluous for a while, and we were expected to wait in the common room till needed again. At these times, there would be plenty of 'expert staff' supervising the pupils and it was a way to allow the pupils to respond accordingly without any influence from their teacher. The 'debriefing session' at the end of the course was an instructional but amusing time for the pupils, and tended to happen between 1.30 pm and 2 pm, and was the 'official certification'. The pupils were all together in the main hall for this last part of the event.

Sept 11th 2001 was not my first experience of such an organised 'Emergency Services' day, so I knew the drill of waiting in the staff common room during 'debriefing'. The attending teachers and helpers had time to have a coffee and a chat. It so happens that particular year, one of the additional adult members accompanying my class was my husband who was not  at work ( a late swap since a  classroom assistant had to do other duties that day).

Above the central seating area were small TV screens which had been displaying the lunchtime news, but with the sound turned down. I think it was somewhere around 1.50 p.m. when someone noticed something dramatic being broadcast - an aeroplane crashing into a very tall tower block. At almost the same time, one of the volunteer officers approached us and told us that two planes had crashed into skyscrapers in New York.

After a small awkward pause, most of the adults sitting around me were somewhat stunned but I remember being mildly amused and thinking something like 'What in the heck are we supposed to do to help with that?' I was thinking that we 'adults' had just been given some kind of test that we had to react to and find a way of handling the situation, albeit that it was a very odd and remote scenario and not something that had happened on my previous 'days' at the Gordon Barracks. It was only when the officer went on to inform us that the whole of the UK was on 'High Alert' due to the threat of terrorism, that it sank in that the events were REAL.

Due to the 'High Alert' status, the attending 'emergency' personnel were in a situation where they were all effectively back on 'standby' duty themselves and had no idea how long that situation might last for them. Their 'day off' spent volunteering was not ending as they predicted either. 

The event was always so highly organised that it was no different from normal to ferry each school back to their own coach, and out of the barracks at the expected leaving time. During the coach ride back to school, the pupils were blissfully unaware of what was happening across the whole world. Naturally, the adults had to remain tight-lipped because we had no idea what to expect when we returned to school just before the end of the school day.

On our arrival, most adults at school still had no idea of what had happened, since they were finishing off normal classes. We eventually went home some time later not quite knowing if the 'high alert' status might mean something different for us the following day.

I wonder if any of those pupils actually remember that they were on that training day?

Some memories are harder to erase.

Slainthe!