Honoring the six D.C. Public School victims who were killed on 9/11: ‘They will always be remembered’

It’s been 24 years since two planes struck the Twin Towers in New York Metropolis, one other hit the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a fourth crashed earlier than it may attain its goal after it was taken over by the passengers on Thursday, September 11, 2001, endlessly altering the nation. 

Of the almost 3,000 people who died that day, six of them, together with three youngsters, have been on their means from Washington, D.C. to a Nationwide Geographic convention in California when their aircraft, flight 77, was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon. 

The six on board from DC public faculties included Leckie Elementary College instructor Hilda Taylor and 11-year-old scholar Bernard Brown, Bertie Backus Center College instructor Sara Clark and 11-year-old scholar Asia Cottom, and Ketcham Elementary College instructor James Debeuneure and 11-year-old scholar Rodney Dickens. 

“It looks as if they by no means left us,” retired Leckie Elementary College instructor Estella Cleveland informed ABC 7 Information whereas chatting with the outlet across the twentieth anniversary of the assault. “They’re nonetheless right here with us. That’s the best way I really feel about it. They are going to at all times be remembered in my coronary heart.”

The three college students had been chosen for a visit to review ecology in California alongside Nationwide Geographic Society researchers, per Fox 5 DC. On that tragic day, at 9:37 a.m., Flight 77 was hijacked lower than 35 minutes within the air earlier than it hit the Pentagon, killing everybody on board and 125 Pentagon staff. 

In a memorial publish on Instagram, DC Public Colleges shared extra about who all six have been and the lives they led earlier than their premature deaths. 

In accordance with them Asia had been a brand new scholar Backus Center College whereas her father labored as a coach classroom assist. Bernard, identified for conserving his lecturers a Leckie Elementary College on their toes, had been exhibiting actual progress and was really useful for the journey partly as a reward. Rodney was an honor roll scholar Ketcham Elementary College, a job mannequin for his siblings, and a religious professional wrestling fan.   

Hilda, who hailed from Sierra Leone, was a veteran instructor at Leckie Elementary College, a mom, and a grandmother who had immigrated to america for a greater life. DeBeuneure, a father of three, had returned to the classroom at Ketchum Elementary as a second profession. Sarah Clark started instructing in DCPS in 1965, was a mom of two and engaged on the time.

Within the years for the reason that assault, the six people have been honored domestically in varied methods. At Leckie Elementary College, a banner emblazoned with all six names of the victims hangs close to the entrance entrance. There’s additionally a memorial for Taylor and Brown created from stained glass. In the meantime, Ketcham Elementary College created what they name the “9/11 room,” devoted to Dickens and Debeuneure, which those that knew them, together with Debeuneure’s daughter, use as an area for quiet reflection to today. 

Jalin Debeuneure, the adoptive daughter of Debeuneure, informed ABC7, that whereas she “typically” nonetheless had her “moments,”  she is aware of it’s okay to be unhappy when she thinks of her dad, who had been a single father who was her world. She, a mom now herself, has used hope alongside her therapeutic journey. 

“Somebody will see this and say, ‘Wow I really feel precisely how she felt however I see how she is 20 years later, there’s hope for me,’” stated Debeuneure. “And that’s what I need for others. That there’s hope.”