Raleigh County teacher shares most important lessons of 9/11 with students

BECKLEY, WV (WVNS) — Woodrow Wilson High School civics teacher John Quesenberry can remember Sept. 11, 2001.

He was in his classroom when the principal notified educators they should turn on the television.

Quesenberry was one of millions of Americans who watched as terrorists crashed a plane into the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan and followed media coverage of the attack in the coming days.

He said he recalls “staying up, night after night, watching around the clock to see if somebody was rescued.”

He said one moment from 2001 is still poignant.

“That moment when they said it’s not longer a rescue mission, it’s only a recovery,” recalled Quesenberry.

Quesenberry said on Tuesday, September 10, 2024, that, each year, he now teaches the events of Sept. 11 as a history lesson to students who weren’t born in 2001.

He said that, with the terrifying events of Sept. 11, he also teaches students another lesson that emerged from the tragedy.

“I also do try to talk about the aftermath,” said Quesenberry, “when you had members of both parties in Congress joining hands, on the Capitol steps, or on the Rose Garden, and singing ‘God Bless America,’ interfaith events at Yankee Stadium and all of these things of people recognizing that we are all one in this country and holding each other a little bit closer and caring about each other.”

He said the events of Sept. 11 were still vivid in his memory.

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