SAN ANTONIO -- Where were you September 11, 2001?

  • Patriotic ceremony at Jefferson High School
  • Most high schoolers weren't born during 9/11
  • Bexar County sheriff shares perspective

It's a question most Americans can answer immediately, but today's high school students weren't even born yet.

At Jefferson High School, the JROTC Corps of Cadets hosted a patriotic ceremony for the student body to honor the victims together.

“When it comes to the subject of 9/11, I’m really, really passionate about it because that was pretty much the first year that my mother came to this country. She was pregnant with me at that time,” said Joao Flores, a senior JROTC cadet at Jefferson High School.

 

 

Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar spoke to the auditorium packed with teenagers, hoping to explain the massive changes the country underwent 18 years ago.

“I think we need to pause and understand where we’ve been as a nation in order to keep progressing as a nation,” said Salazar.

“Personally, I think we should show the student body that we should have some respect and honor, despite it happening years ago,” said Angela Arrazate, a senior JROTC cadet at Jefferson High School.

While the cadets are committed to honoring the victims of 9/11, Flores doesn’t think all of his peers recognize the significance of the event.

 

 

"I feel like it's best to say that, they think that; high schoolers don't care about 9/11. It's not really a subject that's covered too much nowadays,” Flores said. “I remember in my middle school days that we talked about it a lot, but recently it's kind of died out a little bit, which is why bring in these ceremonies so people can remember.”

At the memorial, Flores read a timeline of the events on that tragic morning.

“Prior to that, and I mean right up to the minute, we lived, kind of, in complacency,” Salazar said. “And so these kids have grown up with that sense of pride, and that sense of preparedness that we’ve had since then. But I want to let them know that things were different before and we don’t want to let it get back to that.”

Some of the post-9/11 changes seem unimaginable to today’s teens, especially when it comes to airport security.

“I cannot imagine a time, as it was back then, where you could go in just straight to the gate, say hello to your gate agent or whatever and walk into your aircraft,” Flores said.