A Day To Be Remembered

For all current Stuyvesant students, 9/11 is a day in history that we know to mourn. We have not experienced nor dealt with the emotional trauma so many endured, but we remember the day each year with a moment of silence. However, in 2001, many Stuyvesant alumni who were then students witnessed the chaotic events play out in front of their eyes. Here are some of their stories about that life-changing day:

Eleonora Srugo (‘04)

Eleonora Srugo was four days into her sophomore year at the time of the attack. She was in German class, on the fifth floor facing south, right outside the Foreign Language Assistant Principal’s office. She initially just heard rumblings of some sort, so her teacher did not interrupt instruction. She explained, “We were unaware at the time of how devastating the impact of the first plane was and that classmates on higher floors and further west could see more clearly as we could just barely make out the towers from our room.” Former Principal Stanley Teitel informed the students of what was happening over the intercom and told them to stay in class for now, but to stay tuned for updates. Students became worried when the television and lights went out. As soon as the power came back on, Principal Teitel went on the intercom and advised students to immediately go to their homerooms, authorizing a formal emergency evacuation.

Srugo remembers stepping onto the West Side highway and seeing people covered in soot. “There was a horrific smell in the air, and people were all running north. I did the same until I was far enough away and looked back. My surrounding area was an image I will never forget. All I saw was literally a cloud of dust and smoke. Towers were just gone,” she recalled. Srugo remembers feeling “numb” the rest of the day. The events seemed surreal and inexplicable. Everyone was confused and everything was in shambles.

For Srugo, the impact of the attack had both short-term and long-term effects. She lived in an area in downtown Manhattan where people needed passes to enter the area. Her most vivid memory is the smell in the air. She recalled, “The smell was a stench that just did not go away and I still wonder if it has or if I just got used to the smell.” School was closed for the next few weeks, so it felt like students had an “extended” vacation, she said. Though the environment of their get-togethers changed completely, Srugo and her friends continued to see each other almost every day.

After a few weeks, Eleonora and the rest of the Stuyvesant students continued classes at Brooklyn Technical High School, but they were convened at one p.m. and ended at six p.m. The students did not have homework during that time, so they had the liberty to hang out after school. “The aftermath of 9/11 was a strange time because socially we were actually enjoying that time while there was devastation all around us,” Srugo said.

Once students returned to Stuyvesant, everything slowly returned to normal. For Srugo, Stuyvesant was the dream. It was the high school experience Srugo always dreamed of and 9/11 is now part of that story. “9/11 is a stain on what was otherwise a magical experience,” she explained.

When asked if she envisioned her high school experience differently, Srugo immediately responded, “no.” She never would have thought that something as drastic as 9/11 would occur during her time, but it was a time of bonding, growing, and learning. She reflected, “Almost 17 years later I view that day as the first moment of real adulthood, we all lost our innocence that day. Childhood ended.”

Wen Gu (‘04)

Wen Gu was also enjoying his first few days back as a sophomore when 9/11 occurred. The time was 8:45 a.m. and Gu was in band. He recalls that the first reaction that people had when they heard that the twin towers were hit was laughter. He had heard students say, “What idiot hit the biggest towers in the world? Who the hell would hit the two biggest buildings in NYC?”

Then, he went to his computer science computer and his teacher had turned the radio on. It was not until the second tower was hit that he realized the events were not a joke and were actually something sinister. Students began evacuating the school when the first tower fell. “People in business suits [were] running away and the unusualness of the situation was magnified,” he said. “It is not every day you see people in business suits running.” There was no transit service; all the trains, buses, and shuttle services were closed, so it took Gu three and a half hours to get home.

Looking back, Gu recalled “The attack was a moment of realization for me because I learned that the adults were just as lost as us.” Gu just remembers feeling very scared thinking, “Holy crap, no one [knows] what they [are] doing.”

Students relocated to Brooklyn Technical High School because the air downtown smelled awful even though the students were constantly reassured that the air quality was safe. Gu recalls the smell as “acidic, like burning metal for many days, many months.”

Spending time with his friends really helped Gu deal with the situation and grasp what actually happened because the experience was something only the people who were a part of could relate to. The support and relationships he found after 9/11 became Gu’s defining moments at Stuyvesant.

Michael Loebl (‘05)

At the time of the attack, Michael Loebl was a freshman. He was in biology class.

At first, all Lobel heard was a loud bang. The classroom faced south towards the towers, but he was sitting in the back of the room behind the windows. When another student looked out the window and first noticed that the towers were hit, everyone rushed to the window and saw a “huge, flaming hole in the top of the tower,” he said. The first plane hit the side facing Stuyvesant. One moment Loebl recalls vividly is when his biology teacher tried to seat and calm the students and Loebl asked, "Do you have any idea how many people must have just died?" His biology teacher replied, "This is biology, let us focus on the living."

His next class was on the other side of the building, so he was unable to see what was occuring outside, but he does recall experiencing a brief, “sinking,” feeling, similar to one that he experiences when going down a roller coaster. When he got out of the building, all he saw was smoke, which stretched across the sky “covering buildings in its path,” he said. Loebl walked home that day and remembers watching fighter jets patrolling the skies above New York.

The only other thing Loebl remembers about 9/11 was something his father told him: “You might not realize now, but you were just a part of history.” Loebl continued, “I did not appreciate his comment at the time, but he was 100 percent right.”

After the attack, Loebl suffered from symptoms of severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for many years. “[I have] tears in my eyes as I still carry some of the scars with me. For years, I could not stand the sound of low flying planes. I avoided any thoughts about 9/11 for over a decade,” he said.

Yet, Loebl had an amazing time in high school. Instead of breaking him, 9/11 strengthened his ties to Stuyvesant. “It was such a formative part of my life that I continue to serve the school, and am currently on the board of directors of the Alumni Association,” he commented.

Michael Moy (‘03)

Moy was a junior during the time of the attack. He was in his double-period physics class.

Moy realized that the first plane crashed after everyone ran to the window. Watching the crash was very surreal, to the point where it seemed like a movie to him. After the first crash, his teacher closed all the blinds so that students could not see anymore. Some time later, there was an announcement for everyone to go to their homerooms. As Moy was walking to his classroom, he saw people crying in the hallways. “That is when it hit me that the crash that just happened was not some big special effects, but something severely wrong,” he recalled.

Students were soon evacuated from the school and told to go north, up the West Side highway. As he was walking, Moy noticed a lot of confusion and rumors of more planes circling other sites. He searched for his friends to try to regain some sense of stability in the chaos. Eventually, they made it to midtown and took the train home.

The rest of the day was a constant daze for Moy. “I was moving and interacting with everyone around me, but not fully grasping the reality of what was going on,” he said.

After the attacks, the Tribeca area was not safe to return to. Because Moy did not want to stay at home all day, he decided to volunteer with the Red Cross. They set up cots and food stations at Shea Stadium for firemen, police officers, and anyone who needed a break from the search and rescue operations. He recalled his experience at Brooklyn Technical High School, “Everything was a mess since no one knew where any of the classrooms were and all the classes lasted [for] what felt like minutes.”

It took time for everything to feel like ordinary after the attack, but Moy eventually felt normal again. Everyone wanted to return to life before the attack to show that the Stuyvesant community is strong and will not hide in the shadows of 9/11. “I think the only major difference the following year was that we had a moment of silence,” he said.