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CNN Live At Daybreak

America Recovers: Students Return to School Just Four Blocks From Ground Zero

Aired October 17, 2001 - 07:53   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: It has been five weeks and a day since the tragedy of September 11. The site of where the World Trade Center once stood still speaks to the horror of that day.

The smoke still rises, the smell still lingers. Some 5,000 people were killed in New York on that day; thousands more people ran for their lives as the Towers came crumbling down.

Some of those running were students from Stuyvesant High School, just four blocks from the Twin Towers. And I'm joined this morning by three Stuyvesant students, Liz Alspector (ph), Vicki Slovena (ph) -- Slovena...

VICKI SLOVENA, STUDENT: Slovena.

ZAHN: ... Slovena -- OK -- Elena Galsum (ph) -- welcome, good to see you all.

So you finally got to go back to your school after having attended another school for many weeks.

ELENA GALSUM, STUDENT: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

ZAHN: What was it like to go back there?

GALSUM: It was so scary. I haven't been at that site since September 11, and it was terrifying just to walk out of the train station and have so many cops check your I.D. And then to walk and then the smell, it just hits you like a brick wall. And then, you're walking and you look and you just don't see the Twin Towers when you saw them every day of school.

And then you walk, and when you hit the bridge that walks -- that you've taken to school, you look and you can see the rubble and the cranes. And it's the worst thing you've ever seen in your whole life. And then when we got into school, classes were so strangely normal. It was so comforting, but things weren't normal. When you look out of the window it's not normal to see smoke and to see debris and the memories, it was terrible.

ZAHN: And the smell? For people who haven't been down there, it's a smell that you'll never forget. It's acrid. It stings. It's -- have you shared the same kind of experience?

SLOVENA: Yes, like when you walk out of the school, it hits you. It's an overwhelming smell, but if you don't think about it after like a couple of seconds, it goes away, but it's totally overwhelming.

ZAHN: And how hard has it been for you to return to that place knowing that you would have to look out the window and see what little is left of the Trade Centers?

LIZ ALSPECTOR, STUDENT: Well, I live in Brooklyn, and my house actually looks out onto the Twin Towers, and so I actually have been acquainted with not seeing them. But when I got back to school, it was all different, because it was like -- it was exactly how Elena described it. You walk out of the train station, and you're so used to seeing the Twin Towers there, and they're just not there. And like you just have to be -- think that you're lucky just to survive that kind of thing. It was just so scary.

ZAHN: And you were so lucky. You were so close to where it happened. We're looking at pictures at sort of what your school looks out on.

Final thought this morning, Elena, a quick one just in what all you students face?

GALSUM: That even though inside of the school, it's so strange and normal, but it's terrible. It's so horrible to see out the window and just to walk to school -- to look out -- just to see it. You see ground zero, and you see everything, and then the back of the school, you see barges full of the remains of the World Trade Center. It's the most horrible thing to see.

ZAHN: Well, I know it's painful to have to relive all of this stuff and talking about it on live television, but we appreciate your sharing your story with us this morning, because it's a very important reminder of how many thousands of people here in New York have to try to get back to their normal lives -- good luck at school.

GALSUM: Thank you.

SLOVENA: Thank you.

ALSPECTOR: Thank you.

ZAHN: I hope you have very few distractions the rest of the year.

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