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"My first instinct was to protect the kids."
At the High School of Leadership and Public Service
on Liberty Street, School Aide Michael Mahmet had finished copying
papers at about 8:45 a.m. when he heard an explosion.
From the 12th floor of the school, one block south of the World
Trade Center, he saw a panoramic view of the unthinkable. One of
the towers was burning.
"My first instinct was to remain calm, find out what was going
on and protect the kids, " he said. Minutes later, to his horror,
Mr. Mahmet saw the second plane slam into the South Tower.
Hundreds of Local 372 members like Michael Mahmet were on the front
lines on 9/11, thinking quickly as they led their students to safety.
As airplane and building parts crashed to the narrow canyons below,
pedestrians ran for cover. Next door at the High School of Economics
and Finance, School Health Aide Marcia Davis treated many who were
slashed by the glass and metal rain.
North of the Trade Center at P.S. 234, Supervising School Aide Harriet
Clay hurried to work. She said, "I had to see if I was needed,
if I could help." She found 650 youngsters in kindergarten
and grades 1 through 5 waiting in the lunchroom, gymnasium and auditorium.
Outside Leadership, papers flurried down as people plunged to their
deaths. "I had to keep the students from looking out the windows,"
Mr. Mahmet said, "so I ushered them into the hallway."
The principal gave the order to evacuate.
"We moved quietly toward Battery Park, toward safety, and then
the first tower fell," Mr. Mahmet said. He and 10 students
walked towards the Staten Island ferry, but when vibrations toppled
a nearby construction crane, they headed over the Brooklyn Bridge.
"I looked back," Mahmet said. "It was eerie to see
nothing but smoke. We were shaken and covered in white dust, but
we were alive."
"The building shook, fire alarms sounded and our lights went
out. You couldn't see a thing," Ms. Clay recalled. She and
P.S. 234 staff moved the children to a school on West 11th Street.
All were safe.
That day the Local 372 members unknowingly became heroes.
— D.S.W.