Never Forget or Already Forgotten? Students Struggle with Basic 9/11 Facts 23 Years After History's Most Devastating Terror Attack on U.S. Soil
23 years later, students in Florida are struggling to remember basic facts about the 9/11 terror attacks.
Sept. 11 2024, Published 11:25 a.m. ET
The heartbreaking motto for Sept. 11 is “Never Forget,” but it seems some students in Florida may have already forgotten about the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The state's governor, Ron Desantis, signed a 2023 state law, which had the goal of providing students with at least 45 minutes of instruction every year about 9/11. This law took effect for the 2023-2024 school year, with many social studies teachers opting to set aside Sept. 11 as the day to teach the material.
The terror attacks took place on Sept. 11, 2001.
A year later, the New York Post spoke with multiple students from Florida’s public middle and high schools and found they had difficulty answering questions about even the most basic facts about the deadly day.
A 17-year-old girl from Colonial High School in Orlando said, “Last year we watched a video, but I don’t remember a lot about it.”
Now 23 years laters, students in Florida are struggling to know even basic facts regarding the horrific attack.
Meanwhile, a 16-year-old junior at Oak Ridge High School in Orlando noted, “My mom talked about it, and I know that planes flew into the Twin Towers. I think there was more to it than that, but I don’t know all the details.”
The student was then asked how many people died in the horrific attack. After a brief pause, she responded, “Well, there’s like 100 people on each plane and maybe like 200 in the buildings, so that’s at least 400 right there.”
There were nearly 3,000 people that died in the 9/11 attacks on the U.S.
The attack saw nearly 3,000 people die on U.S. soil.
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According to The Post, the student’s 16-year-old boyfriend then spoke up and said, “Oh, didn’t someone fly another plane into the White House? I don’t think that was the same day, though. Wait, or was it?”
There was United Flight 93, which crashed into a Pennsylvania field after heroic passengers fought back against the hijackers. That flight was potentially heading to either the White House or the US Capitol.
Gov. Desantis signed into law a requirement for teachers to teach 45 minutes a year on 9/11 history.
While many of the students still had much to learn about Sept. 11, 2001, some students were much more informed.
Emilio Reyes, an 18-year-old senior, told The Post that “at least 2,000” people died on 9/11.
“I know that there were about 20 men who took over the planes and flew them into buildings. There were two planes for the Twin Towers, one for the Pentagon, and there was another plane that they crashed into a field somewhere, that was supposed to hit some other place in Washington, either the White House or Congress,’’ Reyes said. “People were jumping out of the towers, like 1,000 feet from the ground. And then [the towers] collapsed and killed everyone in them.”
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When asked about Osama bin Laden, 18-year-old Alanna Montanez knew little about him.
Montanez said, “He hated America for some reason, and he was the one who planned everything. He had a group, not ISIS, but I forget its name.”
The student added, “My mom told me that the entire country stopped for, like, weeks. You couldn’t fly anywhere, and nothing else was on TV but the videos of it.”
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