21 years later: Peoria students pay tribute to first responders, service members in honor of 9/11

Eight-hundred students at Desert Harbor Elementary School in Peoria lined up in front of the school Friday morning and paid tribute to local first responders and service members, including firefighters, police officers and veterans, in honor of the 21st anniversary of 9/11.

The day of remembrance is an annual school tradition that started 12 years ago. Principal Becky Berhow said she wanted to teach students the importance of honoring the "people who sacrificed for us" and who "still today keep us free and safe."

Arizona public schools aren't currently required to include 9/11 in their curriculum or observe the day, but that will change when a bill approved by the Legislature last session and signed by Gov. Doug Ducey goes into effect later this month.

Friday's event at Desert Harbor Elementary started at the gymnasium with a student leading the Pledge of Allegiance followed by the school choir singing "Fifty Nifty United States" by Ray Charles and a moment of silence.

Vietnam veteran Ronald Gordan first attended the Desert Harbor event several years ago. He received a paper medal from his grandson, who was then in first grade. Gordan has come back every year with the medal around his neck.

"It was a tragic event, and we should never let it happen again," Gordan said of 9/11. "That's what I teach my grandkids: to be vigilant and to take care of themselves and make sure they know what's happening in their surroundings."

Rio Verde fire Capt. Tyler Tinsley, the father of a fifth grader, said he hopes his daughter remembers those who perished in the attacks and understands they didn't die in vain.

"Those guys climbed those flights of stairs for the ultimate sacrifice to save people,"  Tinsley said. "They sacrificed to save those families and to protect their families back home."

Brenda Blagg, the mother of a 12-year-old who sings in the Desert Harbor choir, watched her daughter onstage while holding a picture frame. The frame contained photos of Blagg's cousin, who was an Army sergeant, and a high school friend who also served in the military. Both of them were killed in action after 9/11.

Blagg said Arizona's new 9/11 curriculum requirement is important because current students' parents and grandparents were "all affected by this huge day" and students "have no understanding of why it's so significant."

Even though it's not yet a state requirement, many Valley schools already have lessons or activities about 9/11.

Several Peoria Unified School District communities joined Desert Harbor in marking the occasion. Students at Apache Elementary School wrote messages of hope that will be put on a bulletin board in the hall with the quote from the 9/11 memorial in New York, “No Day Shall Erase You from the Memory of Time.”

Students from Frontier and Lake Pleasant elementary schools and Peoria High School commemorated the day by participating in a community luncheon for service members, a short assembly about the history of U.S. military flags and a ceremony organized by students in the Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps.

All K-12 students who attend schools in Surprise's Dysart Unified School District participated in memorial activities on Friday or will have lessons about 9/11 on Monday.

Scottsdale Unified School District board President Julie Cieniawski recalls her young son asking on Sept. 11, 2001, "why planes were flying into buildings."

Cieniawski retired in 2019 after a 30-year career as a middle school teacher in the district, mainly teaching social studies. She was on leave when the 9/11 attacks happened but returned to the classroom years later and covered the events with her students. 

"The entire day was devastating to me, and it was hard to explain this to my son and answer his many questions," she said.

When Cieniawski returned to the classroom, she said she was faced with similar questions from students who had also lived through 9/11 and who "wanted to talk about the attacks, the loss, the destruction, the recovery and how to move on as a nation from there."

Cieniawski said typical lessons included "conversation about the impact of human actions and the role they play personally, politically, economically — and the role they play in shaping systems."

"My role as an educator was to present the facts, allow the students to analyze, synthesize, and critically ponder the impact these devastating actions had on our country," she said.

Arizona's new law will designate Sept. 11 each year as "9/11 Education Day" and will require each public school in the state to dedicate a portion of the day to age-appropriate education about the terrorist attacks.

The law also requires the State Board of Education to develop a list of recommended resources for instruction.

Cieniawski said 9/11 made it "ever so evident ... the significance of teaching geography and social studies," but questioned if a state mandate is necessary.

"As a nation, we've had many days and events of historical significance which have happened in our state, nation, and throughout our world. History is seldom about any one particular day, and our state standards address many historical events throughout time," she said. "Do we need a mandate to observe this day of national significance or should we trust that the education experts will include important lessons of scope throughout their historical instruction? It is my opinion that to adequately teach the complex issues associated with 9/11, in a meaningful yet age-appropriate manner, it takes more than an educational day of observance."

University of Wisconsin, Madison, professors Diana Hess and Jeremy Stoddard have studied since 2002 how the events of 9/11 and the global war on terror are integrated into secondary-level U.S. classrooms and curricula.

A research paper they published in 2018 after conducting a survey of 1,047 secondaryteachers from across the nation showed educators seem to struggle to find time to cover the attacks. The result, they said, is that lessons are often limited to one class session on or near the anniversary of 9/11.

"While honoring the victims and helping a new generation understand the significance of these events are important, we believe there are inherent risks in teaching a simple nationalistic narrative of heroism and evil," an article Hess and Stoddard published last year read.

Renata Cló is a reporter on The Arizona Republic's K-12 education team. You can reach her at rclo@arizonarepublic.com, follow her on Twitter @renataclo, and join the conversation in our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/arizonaeducation.  

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How Arizona students learn about 9/11 in schools 21 years later