Schools mark 9/11

COSTA MESA — With barely a trace of fanfare, an era came to a close Monday morning at Paularino Elementary School.

For the last four years, the Costa Mesa campus has held a special morning assembly by the flag deck on Sept. 11, with faculty members making speeches about the attacks that took nearly 3,000 lives. This year, the school held the assembly, but except for a brief sentence at the end, there was no mention of terrorism.

Instead, third-grader Victoria McDermott, 8, made a speech explaining that patriotism took more than one form. Then, in front of an audience of students garbed in red, white and blue, she carried a microphone across a line of classmates and asked each one to suggest a way to serve their country.

“Take good care of the environment,” one said.

“Treat other people with respect and dignity,” another offered.

At the conclusion, teacher Thomas Barr asked the students — some barely 5 years old — to honor Patriot Day “in remembrance of the attacks of 9/11.” And for the rest of the day, rather poignantly, it was back to business as usual.

Across the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, nearly every campus recognized the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11 in some way. Newport Elementary School flew its flag at half-staff, while Pomona Elementary School set the day’s newspapers out for students to peruse. Most, however, concentrated less on the events of five years ago than on the values that they inspired — with patriotism and compassion somewhere around the top of the list.

“Our kids were only, like, 3 [on the day of the attacks], so we don’t spend a lot of time on it,” Whittier Elementary School Principal Tracey Carter said. “We had a moment of silence today at our flag salute and talked about ways to be a hero in the community.”

At Corona del Mar High School, administrators upheld a modern tradition on Sept. 11 by holding a pair of assemblies — one for high school students, the other for middle school. In the past, the school has invited an Iraq veteran and an American Red Cross worker as featured speakers. Jerry Weichman, a Newport Beach psychologist who works with children nationwide, delivered the address this year.

In addition, staff members announced the launch of a new human relations task force, run in conjunction with the Anti-Defamation League and Orange County Human Relations Council, to improve student relationships on campus. The task force evolved from a previous student club, Tolerance Among People, which conducted humanitarian-themed projects.

“We want our school year to start out really strong,” said Community Service Coordinator Denise Weiland, one of the group’s advisors. “We want our students to respect each other and respect their differences.”

At Back Bay High School, a continuation school, history teacher Sandy Kipfstuhl asked her students to bring in recent newspaper headlines that mentioned Sept. 11. Using the articles as a source, she and the class found vocabulary words — “Pentagon,” “terrorism,” “charitable” — and penned sentences on the board about the attacks.

At one point, the class shared its own memories from five years ago. Kipfstuhl said that when she saw the Twin Towers fall on television, it seemed unreal at the time — almost like a special effect in a movie.

“I didn’t even know what those towers were,” a girl replied.