Seven years ago on 9/11 I was at work in my boss's office and we were looking for some files when another staff person came in and told us that a plane had crashed into the Twin Towers. As most people we thought that it was a plane that went off course. Then we heard about the second plane...

One of the high school teachers had put a TV on in her classroom and they all were watching it. The teachers of the younger kids did not put on a TV nor even tell them what was going on. We sheltered those children from the information so that they would not be filled with anxiety.

As the morning unfolded, I didn't quite know what to do. I tried to sit at my desk and work, but I could not concentrate. I would get up from time to time to and go into the high school class to watch TV, but one of the boys in the class was uncomfortable watching the coverage. I had him come and sit with me in my office and I tried to reassure him that we would all be fine, and that no matter what happened, we were all in this together. I found that a comforting thought for myself . We are not too far away from a submarine base in our state as well as some other choice targets. Everyone was scared.

Then the telephones started to ring and ring and ring. Frantic parents were leaving work to come and pick up their children and wanted them ready as soon as they arrived. Some parents just called to talk and speculate. Everyone was calling. Relatives of staff members calling to see if we all were aware of what was going on or wanting to just talk about what was happening. I don't think I ever took more calls in one day. The phone was ringing non-stop, all lines.

At some point the coverage became too much to bear, so the teacher turned off the TV. In hind sight it probably wasn't a good idea to put on the TV, but who knew what was going to happen?

One of our students had been ill first thing in the morning before anything happened. He had been waiting for his dad to come get him. What we didn't realize is that his dad owned a company that was based in the Twin Towers. When he finally made it to the school to pick him up, we found out that he lost every single one of his employees. I will never forget the look on that man's face.

I had another student whose dad worked in another building right next to the twin towers, the mom wanted to tell her son that his dad was OK, so I had to pull him out of class and fill him in on what had happened before he talked to his mom. She was afraid he would hear about the attack on the bus and wanted him to know straight from her that his dad was fine.

Although many parents came to pick up their children before the end of the day, we did not call for an early dismissal. We tried to keep the rest of the day normal for the kids. When the buses came, we went and talked to all the bus drivers and asked them if they would consider keeping their radios turned off so that the little kids did not have to hear any of the news on their way home. They all seemed fine with that, but who knows if they followed through.

We had to deal with a lot of children who suffered a great deal of trauma for months after that day. Many of our kids had family members who were traveling back and forth to ground zero to help with the rescue efforts and they were terrified that another attack would happen and their family members would be in harm's way.

We had our moments of silence this morning at school at the time the first plane hit, but other than that, no one talked about it.