A Sarasota Classroom Moment Remembered
Cyberzenhub.com – Students with President George W Bush at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, were taking part in a second-grade reading lesson on Sept. 11, 2001, when their visit became part of American history. The president was seated with the children as they practiced reading when White House chief of staff Andrew Card approached him with urgent news.
Card informed Bush that another plane had struck the World Trade Center in New York City. Although the students did not understand the significance of the quiet exchange, former student Krystal Davis said they noticed the president’s expression change.
“You could see the shift with [the president] once he got the message, and then you could see it on his face,”
Davis said while reflecting on the day. She recalled that Bush then tried to resume a reassuring demeanor as the reading activity continued.
“And then the shift of him going back to his normal self and smiling like, ‘I don’t want to alarm the kids.’”
Children Tried to Understand the Sudden Change
Teacher Sandra Daniels also recognized that something was wrong after Card spoke to Bush. The president stayed composed in front of the class, but the children were confused when their guest was soon escorted away.
Davis said the students initially thought they might have done something wrong during the lesson.
“And we’re just like, ‘OK, in the middle of reading, what happened? What did we do? Like, did we do something wrong? Did he not like us reading or whatever?’”
The students with President George W Bush did not yet know that they had witnessed a defining moment of the nation’s response to the attacks. Images of Card leaning toward Bush in the classroom would later become among the most recognizable photographs from that morning.
As events unfolded, students were moved and school staff worked to explain the emergency. Davis recalled seeing television coverage of the Twin Towers collapsing, bringing the enormity of the attacks into the classroom.
A Planned School Visit Took a Different Turn
Elsewhere at the Sarasota school, 10-year-old Stevenson Tose’-Rigell waited in the library. His mother, Gwendolyn Tose’-Rigell, was the school principal, and Bush had been expected to speak about the No Child Left Behind Act.
Instead, the planned education event was overtaken by a national crisis. Stevenson Tose’-Rigell recalled waiting on a podium for hours as adults attempted to keep the children calm and entertained.
“I’d probably say it was a couple of hours at least we were out there on the podium waiting around. We didn’t know what was going on at the time,”
he said. When Bush finally spoke, his message was no longer focused on education. He told the country there had been an apparent terrorist attack.
“We’re pretty much [thinking], ‘Sounds like we’re under attack,’”
Stevenson Tose’-Rigell recalled. “So yeah, it was definitely far off from the script.”
After leaving Sarasota, Bush boarded Air Force One and traveled to military installations in Louisiana and Nebraska before returning to Washington, D.C., that evening. For the children at Emma E. Booker Elementary, the day remained a personal memory of a crisis they were too young to fully comprehend.
FAQ: The Sarasota School Visit on 9/11
Where were the students with President George W Bush on Sept. 11?
They were at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, where Bush was participating in a second-grade reading lesson.
What did Andrew Card tell President Bush?
Card informed him that another plane had struck the World Trade Center, delivering the news quietly while Bush sat with the students.
Why is the classroom scene still remembered?
The moment captured the president receiving news of the escalating attacks while trying not to alarm children in the classroom, making it one of the most enduring images from Sept. 11, 2001.
