KANSAS CITY, Kan. — It has been 23 years since the tragic events unfolded on 9/11, which means the current generation of high school students weren’t alive for that fateful day.
Despite that, participants in Kansas City, Kansas’ Washington High School’s Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program held a commemorative ceremony on Wednesday, and they do every year.
“As a generation, even though we didn’t experience it, this was an experience for our country, not just an individual or generation, this happened to all of us,” said Nevaeh Rosa, a wing commander.
For Americans who weren’t alive, or who were too young to remember, they often know 9/11 through the lense of their family members.
“My great-grandmother actually has a video of it, she was there watching it happen,” said Trinity Wheeler, Washington High School’s ROTC operations group commander.
Alexandria Corrales-Arenas remembers reading about 9/11 throughout her education, but she got a better understanding of it after visiting the site of the Twin Towers last year.
“I just come back to that moment in my childhood where I was reading about all of this and I was like, ‘So this is what it was like, this is what it looked like,’” she said.
Many students learn about the way Americans came together and stood united on that September day 23 years ago.
“I was taught that a lot of people lost their lives trying to save people, and they really are the heroes,” Wheeler said.
KSHB 41 reporter Lily O’Shea Becker covers Franklin and Douglas counties in Kansas. Share your story idea with Lily.
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