Through Flight 93 symposium, Knoch teacher engages students on 9/11
High school freshman students in 2026-27 were born between 2012 and 2013 — over a decade and a full presidential administration after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S.
As high school students born further and further from 2001 reach the age where they learn about difficult subjects, they lack a sense of connection adults have to that day.
“These kids are just not connected,” said Lauren Lemmon, a Knoch High School history teacher. “For somebody like myself, I was in the sixth grade when Sept. 11 happened, and I can remember where I was, when I found out and how scary that was.
“So how do we, as historians and teachers, how are we supposed to have them connect with something that was so relevant to all of us?” she added.
Every year, teachers around Pennsylvania make efforts to teach students about the attacks that shape America to this day. Act 25, a bill signed into law in 2024, requires public school districts to observe a moment of silence every year on Sept. 11. It also tasked the state Department of Education with creating a curriculum on 9/11 for teachers to use, including materials, videos, lesson plans and classroom resources.
In Butler County, teachers continue to take time to highlight its significance, even if it means changing the lesson plan for students who were not alive for it.
“Because it is so important to the fabric of this nation, and how we responded. I think up until that point, we felt untouchable. Nothing like that had ever happened before. Sure, hijackings had happened, but the planes weren’t used as weapons to fly into a tower,” Lemmon said. “So, trying to explain that day to people who were not alive for it is very difficult. You cannot reenact those emotions and what we were feeling.”
Lemmon participated in an immersive educator symposium at the Flight 93 memorial this past summer, organized by the Friends of Flight 93 National Memorial group. Alongside 40 other teachers from across Pennsylvania who applied to the program, Lemmon said the goal was to create a curriculum for classrooms around the country.
The teachers heard from some family members who lost loved ones on Flight 93, when it crashed near Shanksville after being commandeered by terrorists. Gordon Felt’s brother, Ed, made the last 911 call from the plane. Ken Nacke, who serves on the organization’s board, lost his brother, Louis. The husband of Lorraine Bay, a flight attendant on Flight 93, also spoke to the teachers, Lemmon said.
“They opened up the program by saying, ‘Those of us who were alive that day, we are the bridge between memory and history,’” Lemmon said.
At the symposium, the teachers came up with a lesson. They felt it had to include perspectives of everyone affected, from family members to those who helped clean up.
In Lemmon’s interactive lesson, students receive fake passports with an image, name and age on Sept. 11, 2001, along with a little biography about a real person from that day, with no idea what their connection was to Flight 93. After learning about their person, and interacting with others in the room to see what they have in common, Lemmon revealed to the students their fate on that day.
Connecting the students to the story, Lemmon said, is important because “it could have been any one of us” randomly impacted on that day.
The 40 educators were also invited to the memorial this Sept. 11, for the 25th anniversary ceremonies.
“There’s just something about that place, and being there 25 years later, it’s so surreal,” Lemmon said. “The whole goal was to come away with curriculum for the teachers — because we are the ones in the trenches — that we could use and we could share with colleagues across the state and the country.”
