EdWeek deputy managing editor Kevin Bushweller was at Fiorello H. La Guardia High School when the attacks on the World Trade Center occurred. He describes calm school leadership, cooperative decision-making, and the longer-term effects 9/11 had on schools.
An EdWeek editor on site at La Guardia High School observed administrators and teachers make calm, deliberate decisions as news of the World Trade Center attacks spread.
The visit that day was intended to shadow Laura Marks, a La Guardia physical education and health teacher who had been previously attacked, which positioned the reporter inside the school when the crisis unfolded.
Bushweller discussed the school’s leadership choices and how the events of 9/11 produced a prolonged effect on school practice, safety, and trauma responses.
# Sept. 11, 2001
On Sept. 11, 2001, Kevin Bushweller, deputy managing editor for Education Week, was visiting Fiorello H. La Guardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts on Manhattan's Upper West Side. He had arrived to shadow Laura Marks, a physical education and health teacher who had been violently attacked at a graduation ceremony a little over a year earlier.
News of the attacks on the World Trade Center—just a few miles away in Lower Manhattan—spread quickly through the school. Bushweller's account focuses on how school staff reacted in real time: administrators and teachers making calm, deliberate choices and working cooperatively with students and families.
Bushweller was at La Guardia as part of routine reporting. The original purpose was to document classroom work and to observe Marks. That placement meant he was inside the building when the unfolding emergency reached the city.
Staff at La Guardia did not panic. According to Bushweller's recollection, school leaders and teachers prioritized clear decision-making. They coordinated responses across the school community rather than relying on ad hoc, individual action.
Short, concrete actions described in the account include:
Bushweller frames these actions as examples of steady leadership in a chaotic moment.
Bushweller discussed what he saw in a conversation with Education Week Managing Editor Sean Cavanagh. The exchange was captured as a short video piece produced by Yi-Jo Shen for Education Week. The format is a first-person recollection combined with an editor-to-editor conversation about school leadership under pressure.
Bushweller also reflects on how 9/11 influenced schools beyond that single September day. He describes a prolonged impact on how schools approach safety, student trauma, and school-community relations. The piece connects the immediate operational choices made that morning with broader changes in school practice over time.
Education Week has related coverage that explores how 9/11 continued to shape school policies and approaches to safety and student supports.
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