September 11, 2001, started like any other day at Tyrone Area High School.

Social studies teacher Suzy Burket was teaching 9th-grade history and vividly remembers the moment she first heard about the attacks.

An older student knocked on her door and told her to turn on the TV.

“I asked him why, and he said something like, ‘I can’t explain it; you just need to see it,’” Burket said.

So she turned the TV on, and they watched the replay of the first plane, then she and the class watched the second plane hit the tower live.

“I remember thinking that one plane could have been a horrible bizarre accident, but the second plane made it clear that this was no accident. Throughout the day we got the reports from Washington DC and Shanksville, and that made us very concerned about the possibility of any other planes in the air,” Burket said.

Burket recalled that one of her students had a family connection with someone in New York.

“A student whose brother was living in New York at the time, right across the street from one of the buildings that fell, and she couldn’t get a phone call through to check on him because the cell phone system was overwhelmed with people trying to contact loved ones. Fortunately, he was not injured,” Burket said.

The day was especially challenging because many of her freshman students could not grasp how bad the situation was and how important it was to US history.

“They soon stopped watching the live broadcast and started talking. They had no concept of how serious these events were or how many people were in those towers, and they had no concept of how that day’s events would change our society, I didn’t have the heart to enlighten them just yet,” Burket said.

Tyrone English teacher Steve Everhart remembers it as one of his most difficult days as a teacher.

“It was impossible to teach at the time of the attacks and all of the students were glued to the TV,” Everhart said. “The 50 classrooms that were in the school were all on the TV watching what was happening.”

He also vividly remembers his drive home from school when he looked into the sky and saw no signs of planes because all the fights were grounded across the country.

Tyrone Eagle Eye Adviser Todd Cammarata was teaching an eighth-grade US history class in the computer lab when social studies teacher Leslie Estep called and told him the news.

“It wasn’t like it is now in the smartphone era. News still traveled by word of mouth and not through our phones. So when [Mrs. Estep] told me that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center, my first instinct was that it was an accident. When I got back to my regular classroom the next period and saw the second tower get hit on TV I immediately knew this was no accident,” said Cammarata.

He remembers the students being confused and unsure of how to react.

“Some students were visibly upset, while others who couldn’t really comprehend what was happening seemed more entertained by the fact that we weren’t doing our regular lessons,” Cammarata said. “It was really difficult to manage everyone’s emotions that day. It was so confusing.”

Athletic Office Administrative Assistant Kaylee Harper was a student in Mr. Cammarata’s class that day.

“I can remember coming into his classroom and he and the students that were already in the room were just staring at the television in disbelief,” Harper said.

Current fifth-grade teacher Jenna Owens was a junior at Tyrone on 9/11 and a student in Mrs. Germino’s health tech class.

“I remember every detail like it was yesterday,” Owens said. “As a kid, it is hard to wrap your brain around how truly life-changing a large event is. We knew the impact would be huge, but I don’t think we could realize just how things would change.”

Owens had an early morning appointment that day so she was at a restaurant in Altoona when she first heard about the attacks.

“We overheard a group of older gentlemen near our table talking about how the country was being attacked. No one at my table believed what was being said,” Owens said. “It wasn’t until I turned on the radio in the car that I heard the DJ provide more detail of what was happening. The tone was very somber, and she told everyone listening, “Please pray, and if you don’t pray, please start praying for our country. It was all very scary.”

When she arrived at school that morning, she went to her health tech class with Mrs. Germino. Like most of her teachers, Germino had the TV on to watch the news coverage of that day.

“My mom was a nurse at the VA and we feared she would have to leave to help at Ground Zero,” Owens said.

Owens said she is lucky that she did not have anyone she knew directly affected by the attacks.

Owens also said that she visited the Flight 93 Memorial in Somerset County this summer.

“It was amazing how after over 20 years, being in that place became such an emotional experience. Each year, I watch the historical coverage of the event with a new perspective as a parent and a teacher,” Owens said.

High School Administrative Assistant Amanda Raup was just 14 years old and in 8th grade at the time of the attack.

“My first reaction was confusion because we didn’t realize the severity of the event but then I was scared as a lot of people seemed to be in a panic. During lunch everyone was talking about the possibility of another war and wondering if parents or older siblings would be drafted,” Raup said.

She also remembered the teachers having the news on in their classrooms and some of her teachers were crying.

“One of my classmates had a parent who was a flight attendant and I remember her being distraught not knowing what flight she was helping on that day,” Raup said.

Sixth-grade teacher Matthew Germino was in 11th grade at Tyrone Area High School.

Germino was in history class when he first heard about it. The teacher turned the TV on and they watched the second plane fly into the World Trade Center.

“At that moment, we couldn’t really fathom what had just happened. It felt like we were watching a movie. As the day went on everyone was talking about it but some of our teachers refused to discuss it. At the time I didn’t understand why, but then you begin to realize that they were also trying to process what had just happened while also trying to maintain their classrooms, so they did what they could to minimize distractions, which as a teacher I can now better appreciate,” Germino said.

High School Main Office Administrative Assistant Kathryn Eckley was going to her eighth-grade math at Tyrone Middle School when she heard about the attacks.

“The teacher had the TV on and was standing in silence. Mr. Ward tried to explain that the towers were struck by two planes, but it seemed too farfetched to be real. No one really understood what was going on as most of us had never been to or even heard of the World Trade Center,” Eckley said.

Cammarata remembers spending much of the day telling each of his classes about the World Trade Center, its significance, and how many people worked in the towers.

“I can remember drawing a map of Manhattan on my board and talking about what the World Trade Center was and how many people worked there. It was so terrifying thinking of all the people that were likely trapped in the tower that day,” Cammarata said.”I still think about that day a lot.”