Making Difference in the Aftermath of the September 11th 2001 Terrorist Attacks

Abstract

When terror struck the Twin Towers on the morning of September 11th 2001, administrators at neighborhood schools had to act quickly. This ethnographic study compares the experiences of two schools – one, New York City’s premier specialized public high school, the other, Manhattan’s only community college – located adjacent to one another, just four blocks north of the former World Trade Center complex. Each school’s immediate and longerterm decisions for minimizing harm reflect distinctions in the student populations and their institutional standings. While the schools were closed after September 11th’s horrific events, various distinct forms of risk assessment were implemented regarding structural damage, air quality, psychological trauma and other potential vulnerabilities resulting from the event. By comparing the experiences of each institution – what decisions were made, by whom, and what their results were; how the event was experienced by the student bodies and administrators; and how local and national government and media represented each school’s experience – I analyze how class and race are constituted and operationalized (lived) in New York City today.