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CNN Saturday Morning News
High School Students Creatively Cope With 9/11 Tragedy
Aired March 16, 2002 - 07:55 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It has been six months since that deadly day in September, when two planes -- it's hard to believe it has been six months, isn't it?
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.
O'BRIEN: It seems like it has been with us for so long. Anyway, six months since that time, and coping with the tragedy, of course, is really no easier today than it is on that very day.
PHILLIPS: That group of high school students near Ground Zero say a theatrical performance has helped them heal, so let's listen in to what they had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARCEL BRIONES, STUVESANT SENIOR: My name is Marcel Briones. I am a senior at Stuvesant High School. After September 11 -- I don't know. I was in a really weird place. Like I didn't know how to heal, and I went to counseling and everything and nothing seemed to work, you know. It was really hard to heal just by myself.
ANNIE THOMAS, FACULTY DIRECTOR: We are about to start a run through.
We call it "With Their Eyes: September 11 and its Aftermath" as seen by the students, faculty and staff of Stuvesant High School. They went out and interviewed people on audiotape, transcribed the interviews, and then turned them into monologues.
BRIONES: The recollection of what I saw is framed in that window.
And interviewing these people, like the security guard and these two special ed kids, and they have had it so hard, and they are dealing so amazingly, like looking at them just made it all easier for me to move on.
CHRISTOPHER YEE, STUVESANT SOPHOMORE: And show a lot of people that have a lot of resolve over it, and I think this show is a really good thing for just people just to experience other people's feelings.
TIM DRININ, STUVESANT SOPHOMORE: When you sleep a lot and you don't have to deal with it. We have a chance to take a moment in history and turn it into a piece of theater. I guess I want the audience to understand what some of the people really close to it went through.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The electricity went out momentarily, lights flickered. Just everyone screamed and dropped to the floor.
LINDSAY LONG-WALDOR, STUDENT PRODUCER: You know, you might think that your story is just like everyone else's, and you're just an ordinary voice, but no one is really an ordinary voice. Everyone has a story worth telling.
CATHERINE CHOI, SOPHOMORE: Well, my dad, he sort of just nodded when I first came in. We sat down for dinner, and he poured himself some vodka and he poured me some cognac. And I had two shots then went straight to bed. He didn't really say anything, but no, he just sort of had this look on his face that "I know you went through a lot, and I am not going to bother you with all of these questions."
DR. JACK SAUL, TRAUMA PSYCHOTHERAPIST: Theater brings people together for central support. When an audience comes and views a theater piece, they can often feel that what is being staged resonates with their own experience. The performance at Stuvesant, the individual stories that people had became shared stories.
CHOI: OK, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), but you really are fine. But the first day when I came back, I just walked past. Just everything was still smoky. The ruins just sticking out of the ground, and I was like, Damn.
SAUL: Recovery is a central process, and the event that took place downtown was not just an individual trauma. It was a collective trauma.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This show helped me to like heal. I didn't cry at first, you know, when it first happened. I was very stoic and I guess I was just thinking about everything. So to hear other people and their stories and to -- you know, it was like you had a way to relate, and that's sort of helping me to heal.
CHANTELLE SMITH, SENIOR: It's something you will never forget, and you know, we shouldn't want to forget it, because at the turning point in our lives, for some it marks a good thing; for others, again they stressed out, which is sad. And my heart really goes out to those who lost loved ones, you know, they (UNINTELLIGIBLE). But I won't forget it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If Stuvesant can send a signal that we are ready to move on and look forward, then other members of the community and the whole city can also get the message that you're moving on and it's time for everyone to move on.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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