RKYHS students had the opportunity to commemorate the 18th anniversary of 9/11 by hearing from former FDNY Fire Commissioner Salvatore J. Cassano. A 44 year veteran of the FDNY, Commissioner Cassano detailed his experience on the morning of 9/11 and in the hours, days and months that followed.

Cassano described the dedication of the first responders and the months-long work at the Twin Towers. He helped students understand the physical and emotional devastation to the FDNY. He put into perspective, on a practical level, the dilemma of having a city of eight million people to still serve as firefighters while working tirelessly at the WTC site, after having lost a large portion of their trucks and supplies, all while dealing with the department’s emotional loss of 343 fellow firefighters. Cassano described how they figured out how to move forward and thrive as a department, adding more than 6,800 new firefighters in the years that followed as they went through a difficult but remarkable resurgence.

The RKYHS social studies and American history classrooms also commemorated 9/11 with discussions of the events of 9/11 from historical and contextual perspectives at age-appropriate levels.