Saturday marks the 9-year anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It's a moment in our country's history one South Florida school wants to keep alive.
Images of despair that terrorized a nation are still very clear in the minds of South Miami High students, who held a special ceremony Friday to honor the lives lost.
Many of the students were much younger in 2001, so do they even remember 9/11?
"Yes sir. I was in 2nd grade though," said now 11th grader Joel Bohorquez. "When we turned on the TV, the towers were falling. A lot of kids were crying and leaving the school."
The emotions he remembers from his childhood motivated Bohorquez, one of the event's organizers, to get to work.
"For the past three weeks we've been working on organizing the entire event," he explained.
The singing of the National Anthem and a salute to Miami-Dade firefighters were part of a ceremony commemorating that surreal September day. This is the 5th year the school has held this ceremony. Some VIPs also attended, including Miami-Dade school board members and the police chief.
The school's principal said the Junior ROTC students approached him because they were worried they couldn't have this event.
"September 11th is on a Saturday, so they came up to me, the battalion commander came up to me with his leadership crew and they asked if they could still do the presentation on the day before," said Principal Roberto Bonce.
School administrators found it fitting to carry on Friday. South Miami Mayor Philip Stoddard was so glad they did.
"It was a defining moment of a generation. When I was a kid I remember my school day being interrupted by the assassination of President Kennedy," Stoddard said. "This was really a defining moment, 9-11, in the lives of these kids."
He sees it as a lesson in patriotism and pride, strengthened by unity.
"While our safety was under attack, so was our freedom," he added. "But the threat to our freedom comes from within, not from the outside. If we take away our own freedoms, then the terrorists have won."
It's a lesson these students are mastering.
"A lot of brave fire fighters and police officers gave their lives for us and we need to commemorate them because that's what America is about," Bohorquez said.
