9/11 education flourishes under Florida law as 25th anniversary nears

TAMPA, Fla. - This 25th anniversary of the September 11th attacks brings not only memorial services, but education.

Florida law requires all middle and high school students to learn about what happened that day. 

Law requires 9/11 education

The backstory:

When Danielle Serrano looks out at her classroom, it's empty of anyone who remembers where they were on 9/11.

Her tenth graders at Freedom High school were still nearly a decade from being born.

"The students can (still) feel the burden and the emotions that come with discussing 9/11," she said.

Under Florida law, she will go through a packet produced by the Hillsborough County School District, which is a mixture of newspaper clips, pictures from the rubble, oral histories from firefighters, and examples of how America came together.

"The first thing that comes to my mind is the firefighters and the first responders that came to help in New York City," said Serrano.

But how long is 25 years? How do we measure it? 

Educating students and teachers

Dig deeper:

It's long enough that some teachers don't remember 9/11 either. 

That includes Serrano herself. She said she was one year old when it happened.

And that's why, in 2023, Florida began requiring lessons on 9/11 to be given on or around the date itself.  While so many can remember where they were that day, it is a fact of life that that number drops each day that passes. 

"The thing that hit me the most is the phone calls that the people would make on the plane," said Serrano.

The Florida Law

Big picture view:

The Florida 911 Heroes Law was spearheaded by retired firefighter Lee Ielpi.

"That steel mixed with all those people that came down," he explained.

Ielpi's son, Jonathan, was an FDNY firefighter who died that day.  Lee worked on the pile for nine months to find his remains.  He had steel beams from the trade center molded into crosses and Stars of David. 

"Our young people are tomorrow's leaders," said Ielpi. "And if our tomorrow's leaders don't understand what happened in our world, not just our country, we failed."

Impact on students

What they're saying:

Students who were born more than ten years after 9/11 happened — and who are now 15 years old — seem to be mostly focused on the impact that 9/11 had on the people that day, as opposed to how it changed world history."

"It teaches you to cherish the people that are close to you," said one student.

"It's like more for respect for the people who passed away," said another. "They weren't even aware that they were going to get attacked, that they were going to die that day."

With the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq now over, its impact on the 21st Century can feel blunted. But the lessons taught in the district's official curriculum include its impact on domestic civil liberties, airport security, the ongoing struggle in the Middle East, and the Pentagon's hefty footprint. 

For teachers like Ms. Serrano, 9/11 offers an opportunity to teach a lesson that can stop terror itself.

"Respect is the most important thing," she said, "and that's something that we have to teach in classrooms every day, and I think this is just another example of that."

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