Student members of the Pearsall High School Mighty Maverick Criminal Justice Explorers took part in a memorial stair climb at Mack Laxson Field on Monday morning, September 11, to commemorate the selfless service of emergency responders, including firefighters, medics and police, who climbed into the towers of the World Trade Center within minutes of terrorist attacks on the same date in 2001, timing their stadium climb to coincide with the moments when hijacked airliners struck the high-rise buildings in Lower Manhattan. Many of the emergency responders who ascended the stairs in the towers were never seen again. Although the students climbed their stadium steps in athletic gear, they were reminded by instructor Bryan Jackson that emergency responders climbing the World Trade Center did so in full rescue gear, carrying emergency packs and oxygen tanks in their attempts to rescue civilians who had become trapped in the damaged skyscrapers. A total of 2,753 people were killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center towers, of whom 343 were firefighters. The death toll from the Sept. 11 attacks reached 2,977, not including 19 terrorists, in plane crashes in New York, Washington, DC, and in Pennsylvania.
(CURRENT Photo: Manuel Azocar III)
