(double post)
I was in fifth grade when Reagan was shot, and I remember the principal came on over the PA system to make an announcement. I don’t remember exactly what he said, but I think it had already been determined that it wasn’t a fatal shooting or anything like that.
Conversely, I just don’t remember anything about the Challenger at all. I had to have been in high school then and I don’t remember any televisions being brought in or anyone saying anything about any of our teachers having tried out for it, nothing. I don’t even remember an announcement being made about it during the school day.
I’m too young to have been in school during 9/11, but I was in middle school during Sandy Hook. We were told that about 20 elementary school kids were killed, but no one really realized the scale of what happened until we got home and read the news.
We watched the verdict in the middle school library. It didn’t seem strange though, because we weren’t little kids and it wasn’t something that would scare us.
I was a freshman during the OJ verdict and the school piped in a radio feed over the PA system. So we all listened to it.
Oklahoma City happened over Spring Recess, so that one’s disqualified.
Columbine happened during my senior year and I used to leave early a lot of days to go to my job. I don’t remember anything specific about Columbine, so I probably wasn’t in school at the time.
For 9/11, I was in college and TVs sprouted up around campus literally minutes after the second tower was hit. Professors made classes optional that day and most turned into extended discussions about what happened.
I was in 7th grade when Reagan was shot. I remember being told by a fellow student in the hall between classes. I don’t recall an announcement over the PA, but there could have been one.
I was a senior in HS when the Challenger blew up, and I do remember that announcement coming over the PA.
I was just starting 9th grade on 9/11 in a high school in suburban DC, a month shy of my 14th birthday. Yes, the school told us exactly what happened. The principal came on the PA at the beginning of 4th period and informed us that there had been terrorist attacks in New York and at the Pentagon and that the US was in a state of national emergency. Teachers were told that it was fine to turn on classroom TVs to the news and that the rule against student cell phone use was temporarily suspended. We all watched TV for awhile, then another announcement was made that the school system had decided to close and we would be going home at 12:30. When my 7th grade brother got home, he said that his middle school had told them exactly what was happening, too. I don’t know what was said at the elementary level, and I’m sure they didn’t turn on the TVs, but they would have had to say at least something to explain to the kids why they were going home early when there was no bad weather coming.
Oddly, a year later, when the Beltway Snipers went on their initial spree by shooting someone at a car dealership down the street from my school and we went into lockdown, they told us there was a “chemical spill” in the neighborhood. But apparently it wasn’t communicated to all staff that this was to be a coordinated lie because I went to the library at lunch and asked the staff there if that was really what had happened and they told me the real story.
I was in high school when Reagan was shot - there was a garbled announcement of something over the PA system near the end of the day, but I didn’t understand it (and judging from everyone else’s reaction, no one else understood what was said either (maybe the announcement had nothing to do with the assassination attempt)). When I got home I turned on the tv and heard all about it, though.
I was in High School chemistry class when Reagan was shot. The principal announced it over the PA all amped up and emotional. That stupid tool thought that it was his JFK moment. The teacher was smirking during the announcement and just continued with class. A few said that class should be cancelled because of the attempt but we were just joking. The rest of the school day continued as normal. No one gave a shit.
I don’t know, your teacher sounds more like the tool than the principal. Isn’t emotional a more normal reaction to hearing the president has been shot than “Eh, whatever”?
We watched the Challenger launch (Christa McAuliffe’s school was about 20 minutes away; every school child in southern NH was glued to the TV), so there wasn’t much they could do. We watched for a while as they tried to figure out what happened. Eventually we were sent out to recess so they could figure out what to do with us. Apparently the answer was “bring them back in and keep watching TV.”
Came home, yelled “Mom, someone tried to shoot Reagan!” My mother turned on the TV and confirmed it. My younger brother came home a bit early because the principal dismissed early and I vaguely recall he had to write a report. Very bad, because in the news there was something about Garfield being shot and he thought it mean Garfield the comic book cat. He was glad the cat was alive.
And then the pope. I yelled, having heard the news at school, “They shot the Pope!”
We weren’t Catholic but my mother screamed “Don’t tell me things like that!”
And then they got Sadat. I started to tell my mother guess who they shot today and she just said “Yeah, I already know.”
I too was in elementary school when Reagan was shot - and they did the whole PA thing. The only things I really remember was:
- Whose classroom I was in
- That there was announcement over the PA - no TV
- My classmate got very angry and said “I’m going to kill the bastard who did this!”
He may have used a different word than bastard, but I found this quite amusing - as he seemed totally serious, and without a license, car, and probably advanced weapons training - my elementary school brain found this quite amusing and I never forgot it.
We too watched TV coverage of the challenger disaster. We weren’t watching it live, but a student came into our class and said “Mr. So and so said the Space Shuttle just blew up.” I think the teacher was curious - went out into the hallway and wheeled in a TV. I don’t think he was really doing it for us so much as for him, but it was cool with us.
I don’t remember either time their being any life lessons thought along with it - it was sort of just - hey this happened.
We also got an announcement once that one of our students had died during surgery - which was weird - since it was a small elementary school and most people knew most of the other people - but no one seemed to know who this person was. On retrospect I’m guessing she was officially enrolled, but never attended due to health problems.
I feel a little left out. While I was school aged for Reagan and Challenger, I was out sick both days.
I was in the car, alone, for Columbia and 9/11.
Born in 1981, United States
My mom has told me several times about being in grade school and hearing about the assassination of JFK over the loudspeaker. Lots of crying, as she reports it.
I was just a bit too young to be in school when the Challenger exploded, so I missed that one. I was really into space and astronauts at that age; I guess my parents just must have withheld that one from me. I don’t think I heard about the Challenger until the late 80s.
I was grade-school age when the Berlin Wall came down. Not a tragedy, but a significant event. There was no immediate announcement, though we did hear a bit about it in the following months. No real drama. For me, I just remember thinking - “Huh. In the last Olympics, there was an East Germany and a West Germany. Now they’re one country?”
Not a single word in school about the Oklahoma bombing. Wouldn’t even have known about it except my parents got TIME and Newsweek back then and I would typically read them. No idea of the real horror of the event until I got older and could read the accounts as an adult.
9/11 happened my sophomore year of college. I had an early EE (electronic engineering) class. One of the guys I knew in my program at the time rushed in and announced a plane had hit the WTC. I remember thinking it must have been a small plane, like a Cesna, and it had just lost control. Most of us had cell phones at the time but internet access from a phone or wi-fi or even having laptops in a class was still a few years off. Prof shrugged and went on with the lecture. Got back to my college apartment just in time to turn CNN on and see the second plane hit. I remember yelling my roommates out of bed to come see this. We were glued to the TV all day. 9/11. 9/11 was the first national tragedy that I was really aware of as it happened and that really affected me (not personally, but just the enormity and horror of the thing.) And of course since I was then an adult, I became acutely aware of how it’s colored politics and military action since then.
it depends.
I remember when the news came out about the attempted rescue of the American hostages in Iran back in I think 79 and our teacher came in and talked alot about it. He then went into a political rant.
And there were some that when Reagan was shot said “Good!”.
This Ferguson thing could start alot of problems.
The Reagan assassination attempt was when I was in 4th grade. Our school was very small – like 90 students in K-6. I don’t think it even had a PA system. At any rate, I didn’t hear about it until my mom picked me up after school.
The Challenger explosion was in 9th grade, but that was a snow day for me. I was outside when it happened.
Came for Challenger, leaving satisfied.
We also watched the OJ verdict live in BAND CLASS, which I thought was crass at the time.
I remember being in 6th grade and watching the OJ Simpson verdict (and remembering watching the NBA playoffs and the Bronco chase cutting in) I remember it being significant because it was really the first thing I had noticed being covered (almost) 24 hours a day by news channels and my parents and everyone else had been following it all summer long. I knew the verdict had major significance but I didn’t quite grasp why at the time.
I might be remembering incorrectly but I thought we watched some coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing. It may not have been in school, I can’t say for sure.
I don’t recall whether or not we watched coverage of Columbine. I don’t believe we did. I remember coming home and a friend of mine were watching coverage of it on TV. It seemed around that time there was a few different school shootings.
I was a junior in high school when 9/11 happened. We watched it all day on TV. It was surreal, but it didn’t kick in until later how much of a tragedy it was.
I was in sixth grade, too. We didn’t watch it but listened over the radio. And I remember it being a huge deal, too, with tons of coverage, even though I myself didn’t quite get it at the time. Kind of weird to look back now and think that’s history…