Born after 9/11, Bakersfield students keep victims’ memory alive

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Every year, high school students in Bakersfield take a moment to remember and honor the lives lost in the September 11 attacks.

Even though these students were not even born until a few years after the attacks, they still aim to give respect and honor to every victim.

“Even if you didn’t lose somebody, somebody else lost somebody,” said Bakersfield High School student Adelin Delao.

Delao is the group commander of the JROTC, the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, at Bakersfield High School.

At South High School, Natalia Estrada is in that school’s JROTC.

“Today is important because that’s the day the terrorists wanted to tear us apart, and wanted us to be all separate,” Estrada said. “Instead it brought us all closer together and made us more unified as a country and a nation.”

At the Career & Technical Education Center students honored the victims by climbing the same number of steps first responders climbed to save lives at the World Trade Center towers.

Lucas Byerly did nine laps at the bleachers.

“If someone doesn’t keep this going, then those people that died, they’re just going to become names on a paper somewhere,” said CTEC student Lucas Byerly.

“Doing this is a way to keep their memory alive and what they’ve done, so that’s an important piece of tradition to keep.”

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