𝟐𝟓 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒 𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑, 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐒𝐄𝐏𝐓. 𝟏𝟏

𝙁𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙢𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙞𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙧𝙤𝙤𝙢 𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙖 𝙜𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙣 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙛𝙞𝙛𝙩𝙝-𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨, 𝙇𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙣 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙨 𝙖𝙦𝙪𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙧-𝙘𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙮 𝙗𝙮 𝙥𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙎𝙚𝙥𝙩. 11 𝙩𝙤 𝙖 𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙗𝙤𝙧𝙣 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙛𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜

LINDEN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, NJ (Sept. 11) — At 8:46 this morning, the little American flags stopped waving.

Some 200 students gathered in the rocket-themed play area outside School No. 8, many dressed in red, white and blue. They raised their miniature flags and fell silent beneath a clear September sky.

Standing among them were Board of Education President Malaysia Thomas, Mayor Derek Armstead and district administrators, including Assistant Superintendent Annabell Louis, Human Resources Director Dr. Kayla Lott, Elementary Supervisor of Buildings and Grounds Jason Andersen and Joe Scaldino, along with teachers and staff.

For a moment, there was only stillness. Exactly 25 years earlier, at 8:46 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

The children standing together Friday morning had not been born yet. For them, Sept. 11 is history. For many of the adults surrounding them, it is memory.

And across Linden on Friday, both generations were remembering together.

The solemn observances stretched well beyondthe two schoolyards. AcrossLinden Public Schools, students and educators marked the anniversary through ceremonies, classroom lessons and quiet reflection.Outside McManus Middle School, music teacher Bart Healey and band student Osmar Borda sounded“Taps”at 8:46, 9:03, 9:37 and 10:03 a.m., marking the moments each of the four hijacked planes crashed. Beyond the schools, a bell tolled during a remembrance serviceat Firehouse No. 1,first responders gathered to honor the fallen and theAmerican flag was raised outside City Hall.And the remembrance was not yet over: Later Friday, the community will gather at sunsetfor a candle-lighting and wreath-laying ceremony at Wanda Green Memorial Park, namedfor the Linden motherwho was among the 40 passengers and crew members killed aboard United Airlines Flight 93.

From schoolyards and classrooms to the firehouse, City Hall and, later, a park bearing the name of one of Linden's own, the community was moving through the 25th anniversary together, remembering a day that changed the nation.

Two moments frozen in time

At School No. 8, the morning began with the Pledge of Allegiance before Principal Michelle Rodriguez explained the events of Sept. 11 in terms her elementary students could understand.

She spoke about the four hijacked airplanes, the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the crash of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania and the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives.

But she also spoke about what emerged amid the devastation: firefighters, police officers, emergency medical workers, doctors, members of the military and ordinary people stepping forward to help others, sometimes at enormous personal risk. “Some of this is history for you guys,” Rodriguez told the children. “For us, this is what we lived.”

Then came 8:46. Flags went up. Voices stopped.

After the first moment of silence, Mayor Armstead brought the lessons of the day down to the level of the children standing before him. He told them that firefighters, police officers, doctors, neighbors and others who stepped forward on Sept. 11 demonstrated what courage looks like. But heroism, he said, does not require a uniform, a badge or adulthood.

“You do not have to wait until you’re grown up to be a hero,” the mayor advised. You can be a hero right now.”

Stand up for a classmate. Listen to a teacher. Help a friend who has fallen. Show kindness.

“Small acts of kindness make you the hero today,” he told them. “You are the future of Linden.”

Then came another time etched into American history. At 9:03 a.m., the school community fell silent again.

Twenty-five years earlier, United Airlines Flight 175 had struck the South Tower.

Two moments of silence.

A quarter-century separating the children holding the flags from the morning those moments represented.

Then, slowly, students began filing back inside.

Across town, another group of children was preparing to remember Sept. 11 in a different way.

At 9:30, remembrance takes root

By 9:30 a.m., the scene had shifted to School No. 4. There, beneath the marquee at the front of the building, the colors of the morning appeared again. Red. White. Blue.

This time, they weren't on flags. They were flowers.

Thirty-five fifth-graders in School No. 4's Environmental Club, led by teacher Nicole Attanasio, gathered to plant a 9/11 Remembrance Garden that created a living memorial to the lives lost and the courage and service that followed the attacks.

The students regularly work with plants through the club, tending and growing them as part of their environmental activities. Friday morning, what they planted carried a different weight.

School No. 4 Principal Dr. Suzanne Oliverio welcomed students, staff, district leaders, city officials and community members to the Patriot Day observance. “These flowers will serve as a living reminder of the lives we remember, the heroes we honor, and the importance of kindness, courage and unity,” Oliverio said.

She also looked beyond the anniversary itself. “While we remember the past, we also have a responsibility to build a future filled with hope, compassion and peace,” she said.

The symbolism was difficult to miss. At School No. 8, children had raised flags and stood still to remember two moments in time. At School No. 4, children put something into the earth that could keep growing long after the ceremony was over. And the hands planting those red, white and blue flowers belonged to students born long after Sept. 11, 2001.

The spirit of September 12

Mayor Armstead, who traveled from the School No. 8 ceremony to School No. 4, asked students to remember not only Sept. 11, but what he called “the spirit of September 12.”

It was what happened after the devastation, he said, when first responders, neighbors and strangers came together to help one another. “When things are at their absolute worst, human beings can be at their absolute best,” Armstead said.

A quarter-century later, he told students, that spirit can endure through everyday acts of courage and kindness.

The message fit the garden taking root just feet away.

Students will pass it on their way into school. Families will see it beneath the marquee. Seasons will change around it. New students will arrive.

And years from now, a child even further removed from Sept. 11 may stop and ask why the garden is there. Someone will have to tell the story.

Across the district, remembrance continued

The remembrance reached across Linden Public Schools in different ways.

Outside McManus Middle School, the American flag snapped in the morning wind as music teacher Bart Healey and band student Osmar Borda sounded the solemn notes of “Taps” four times: at 8:46, 9:03, 9:37 and 10:03 a.m., marking the moments each of the four hijacked planes crashed on Sept. 11, 2001.

Teacher and student stood side by side, another bridge between the generation that remembers and the generation inheriting the memory.

Elsewhere, observances unfolded more quietly behind classroom doors. There were no microphones in many classrooms. No crowds. No formal ceremonies. Instead, there were teachers and students.

A photograph on a classroom screen. A historical account. A reading. A discussion. A writing assignment. A student's question about something that happened 25 years ago.

Teachers across the district incorporated Sept. 11 into age-appropriate lessons, helping students understand not only what happened, but also the courage, sacrifice, service and humanity that emerged from one of the nation's darkest days.

The settings were different, but across the district, the message was the same: We remember.

For today's students, those lessons carry increasing importance.

No elementary student who raised a flag at School No. 8 or planted a flower at School No. 4 on Friday has a personal memory of Sept. 11. They weren't there. They know the attacks through photographs and videos, books and classroom lessons, and stories passed down by parents, grandparents, teachers and others who remember where they were that morning.

A quarter-century later, lived memory is becoming taught history. Teaching it is now part of remembering it.

A city remembers

The remembrance continued beyond the schoolhouse doors.

At 10 a.m., a bell tolled at Firehouse No. 1, where Linden firefighters, police officers and other first responders honored the lives lost and remembered the emergency personnel who, 25 years earlier, joined agencies from across the region in answering the call for help.

At 1 p.m., the American flag was raised outside City Hall.

And the city's remembrance will continue into the evening.

At sunset, city officials, residents and community members are scheduled to gather for a candle-lighting and wreath-laying ceremony at Wanda Green Memorial Park, named in honor of Linden mother Wanda Green, who was among the 40 passengers and crew members killed aboard United Airlines Flight 93.