Interview with Fredda Pichardo – The Windows of a Classroom on 9/11, Hist 150  Spring 2025, Conducted by Olivia Pichardo, March 5, 2025

Overview of Social Change Interview:

Terrorist attacks refer to acts of violence aimed at civilians for religious or political goals of a certain group of people. These types of heinous attacks have taken place internationally. And although the 9/11 terrorist attacks were not the first acts of terror on United States soil, it was the deadliest and it did bring about the greatest social change. Perhaps the reason is because there were about 3000 civilians killed or maybe it is because these attacks were an indication that Americans were not as safe and their security was at risk. In September, civilians boarded flights which were hijacked by Al Qaeda terrorists while others went to work at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and they would never live to tell about it. 

 

Life on a normal New York City morning busy with trains, buses, cars and people rushing to get to work and school abruptly stopped when the Twin Towers collapsed. But it was unknown, it was totally different from a fire drill or an evacuation drill. There were no plans in place for the day that terrorists bomb buildings. Evacuation plans in schools did not account for hundreds of hysterical parents showing up to pick up their children at school fearing for their safety. 

 

Biography:

For this interview I interviewed, Fredda Pichardo. She was born and raised in New York. She grew up in Rosedale, Queens where she lived with my Grandma, Grandpa and her older Brother.  She went to Yeshiva University where she got her Bachelors in Arts and then furthered her education at Queens College where she got her Masters in elementary education. After marrying my Dad they stayed in the area and after having my older sister she moved to a town called Valley Stream on Long Island which is where she still currently resides. She is an elementary school teacher at PS7 in Queens, NY where she used to teach 1st grade and now works as the librarian as well as helping to set up events around the school for the students, creating merch, and running the schools social media platforms. In this interview we will be covering 9/11 and her own personal experiences with this tragic event. 

 

Transcription:

OP: Okay, can you tell me a little bit about yourself and your background?

FP: Yes, I am a I myself. Fredda Pichardo, I grew up in Rosedale Queens, New York, which is right outside of New York City. Well, it’s at the very edge of New York City, bordering the suburbs, but it is still considered New York City. I went to private school as as a child and through high school, I went to private religious school. I did not attend public school and including college. I grew up in a very small neighborhood, not a lot going on, not a lot of action, but still considered New York City, but it would not be typical of what one would think Manhattan. But we did have a lot of I did have a lot of experience traveling to Manhattan and going to Manhattan, because that’s what you did. So even though it didn’t really look like the city, it was. It’s only about a 25 minute train ride to Manhattan from where I grew up, and I think that’s grew up with. I have a brother, both my parents, my brother moved to New Jersey now, and my parents still. We don’t live far from where I grew up, in Rosedale Queens, but we are in a in a suburb, not what you consider New York City now, but I’m not far from there.

 

OP: Great. Okay, can you describe what it was like growing up in New York as well as continuing to live there?

 

FP: Growing up in New York, was uh very calm, not, not really anything wild, like what others would think. So when you start meeting people from other places, they think it’s really a novelty or something very exciting that you come from New York, and they think that you have all this like action going on, but it really is pretty quiet and very low key, same as anywhere else that you would live, where you know, you go outside and play, you go to the park, you ride your bike, you learn how to drive when you’re 16 years old. Not really anything different than I met people from Kansas. I met people from Wisconsin in college, and when we went to visit it was very similar to that, so very low key kind of calm life. What was the other part of the question?

 

OP: Um how is it like continuing to live here, live there

 

FP: Continuing to live as I got a little bit older I did live in Manhattan. That is very that is different, because there, there’s, there’s a lot of people all the time inner city, and lots of subways, trains, busses, a lot of shopping, a lot of things going on, much more busy, and that lifestyle was slightly different, but mostly during the day. Even when I lived there for a year in the for three years, in the evenings, it was still pretty quiet and not a lot going on, just during the day, near where the shows take place and restaurants are, it’s very busy.

 

OP: K. Can you describe a typical day as a New York City school teacher?

 

FP: Typical day as a New York City School teacher starts off with, well, very little parking so you drive to beautiful little neighborhoods I work in. I worked and I still work in Queens, which is one of the five boroughs of New York City. It’s right next to Manhattan. New York City is comprised of five boroughs, and although it it looks kind of suburban, and there are, there are houses, there are some apartment buildings there parking is a major issue, and there’s traffic. Like the streets are very, very small, there’s traffic, so you got to get there pretty early to park. But the school buildings are just like any other school building anywhere else. The one thing that’s different with the students is that we do get a diverse population, because we are in the city, and you’re near subways, and we get a lot of immigrants and people that are coming to live in New York, and they oftentimes live near where there’s transportation. They might have cars, and oftentimes they’re working in Manhattan, because they’re coming here for some sort of trade, either they’re working in restaurants or a certain type of work that brought them here some kind of craft. And they oftentimes live near trains. So that brings them to areas like queens. But the only difference would be, is maybe we have some students that are just are not proficient in English. But a typical day is you come to school and you go to your classroom and you learn reading and writing and math, and you go outside to play for recess, and you go to lunch, and you go to gym, and you go to art class, and then you go home. Your mom picks you up and you go home.

 

OP: Great. Okay, so how was your day at work before the attack on 9/11?

 

FP: On the day of 9/11 or before?

 

OP: On the day of 9/11 walking into the building. How was your day? Was it still the typical New York City teacher day?

 

FP: It was actually the very, very beginning of school. So one thing I should have said is that New York City schools are gigantic, lots and lots of people. So first day of school is hectic because kids are nervous about coming and they don’t know where to go, and they don’t know where to line up. And maybe some schools have two or 300 kids, but we had 1400 kids, so the first couple of days of school was very, very hectic because you wanted to make sure that everyone knew where they were going. So in the beginning of the year, we always lined the kids up outside in the schoolyard so that we can say, see the parents and welcome them, and they’ll know exactly their way around the school to drop off for future dates. So it was still in the beginning of school, and one of those times when we were meeting the students and greeting them outside in the schoolyard, it was a gorgeous day out, very sunny, very beautiful, not too hot. And we and met the parents outside, and we went in and went back up to the to our classes. And I was teaching first grade. My class was on the second floor, and we brought the kids up and we every teacher in New York City gets one lunch period and one prep period. So it’s like a free period. And I was on my free period. What so up until that it was just a normal day, the kids came in, they unpacked, we checked homework, we started our lesson, and I’m not exactly sure what class was next. I think they were in the classroom for social studies or science. The teacher came in and I went out to the copy machine. But up until then, it was just a regular day, and the weather was absolutely Clear, brisk and gorgeous.

 

OP: All right. And now what happened after you found out about the attack, after the Twin Towers were hit?

 

FP: So I was I, so at that time is just when cell phones. People really did have cell phones. So now people were actually carrying a cell phone in their pocket, you know, like it wasn’t before that you were still, like, not always doing that, but you did still right now, like you didn’t have the phones that look like now, but you did have your phone in your pocket. So it was my free period. I walked to the copy machine on the floor, on my floor where I work, to give one of the school aides something to copy from my class. And one of the assistant teachers said something to me, but I actually really didn’t understand what what she was saying, because, like, it was so out of context. And she said something like, look out the window. Look what happens, what’s happening at the tower. And it was kind of like I really didn’t get what she was saying, and I had my phone in my pocket, so I walked back to my room, which was 220 the room number was 220 and so out of my windows of my room, because Queens is right next to Manhattan, and it was a very, very clear day. So even though, well, you want to say it’s not really walking distance, but it kind of is, it’s only, like a couple of miles, I looked out the window and like directly, right across, you could see that one of the towers had already, like, was up in smoke, and we already were like, we weren’t sure exactly what happened. And then we all started talking, and we were like, okay, so we turned on the news. We tried to turn on the news, and nothing like was really working that well. But again, not really alarming, because, you know, there could have been a fire, like a terrible accident, a fire, or something like that, we will or at this point, like looking out the window and seeing what was going on.

And I took out my phone, because I’m like, let me, you know, see if I could call my mom. My mom was a principal, and then we, I kind of knew there was gonna be an issue, because the phones weren’t working. So that was weird. So the cell phones weren’t working. We had no service. I had Verizon, and it was, that was weird, or there was something I didn’t have Verizon. I had something else at the time. But forget it was, maybe it was, I forget what it was called. Maybe it was AT&T but so then we were watching. We all put on the news, and then the other tower fell. And then, like we at that point, knew that there was a major problem, we also knew there was a we started figuring out that there was a big problem, because the phones weren’t working that well. We were fine in school, but parents started showing up to the school to get their kids. So we knew that there was a major problem and something was going on, because now parents were listening to what was happening. And then we didn’t know that it was any kind of a terror attack, but we did know that both of the towers were, like, basically blown up, and I had a girl in my class at the time. I’m not going to mention her name here. Her initials were LC, and her mom and Aunt worked up on the observation deck of the towers. That was their job. And with the year before, I had taken my class, so they dropped off in the morning, and the cousin was in my friend’s class next door, and they dropped off in the morning, and I was thinking to myself, Oh, Gosh, I wonder if they went to work, because that was around the time that they would have been there, but they actually were one of the first that came to get their kids, luckily, like I that’s all I was thinking was, I wonder if these girls parents now, A lot of other people worked in Manhattan, but I knew that they actually worked in the towers, and maybe they would have dropped off, gone straight to the train and then gone up, but by then, there was bas-, I don’t want to say there was chaos in the school, but there was a very big problem, because the parents, not only in our school, but in my school, they were lines up around the corner, which ended up being in all schools, no matter where you were in New York, because parents didn’t know, we didn’t know what was happening, what was going on, or what was like any of it, until they got a grip on it.

So parents did the most natural thing, and they ran to the schools to go get their kids. But you cannot dismiss kids even ever you when a parent just comes and shows up at a school, you can’t just say, you know, I want Olivia and I’m gonna, I’m gonna take her home. You have to sign into the office. You have to sign your kid out. You have to show identification. So it’s way more complicated than a parent just showing up, especially when there are hundreds waiting outside. So that became a very like that became the impetus for what went on later, and more prepared this. But so the day turned to being a day of you didn’t worry about your prep and you didn’t worry about your lunch. What they ended up doing was lining up the parents, and they had these little pieces of paper with a pen, and they would go from like the school, aid would say to the person you know, who’s your child and what’s the class, and they would write it down with the class number, and then they would go up to that, get that kid, and they would bring the kid down, the parent would show identification or sign that they had a paper for them to sign out, and then the child would be released. And once they got that system going, it was quite a bit of time, and that went on all day long, like that was a thing all day long. That good.

OP: Yup.

FP: Okay.

 

OP: All right. So now, now after 9/11, Can you describe the impact that 9/11 had on your friends and your family and friends?

FP: So the next thing that we started doing after school was was dismissed. So we stayed in school, whoever was able to, and it didn’t have family. So I did not have kids at the time. I stayed with anybody else that was able to stay with the kids that were not picked up. So we didn’t know that the kids that were not picked up, if it’s because something happened to their parents or they couldn’t get out of Manhattan, which many everyone walked out of Manhattan. They walked from Manhattan to Queens. So some parents, even though dismissal was probably three o’clock, some parents didn’t get it till 6 or 6:30 and we sat with our cell phones, and we sat with them in the cafeteria. I finally was able to get in touch with my own parents at about like, four o’clock in the afternoon to say I was fine. Everything’s fine, and we’re waiting here. So once the kids dismissed and you went home to your family that night, and what you did was you called anyone that you knew that could have been at the towers or Manhattan. And unfortunately, so many people that you knew, like were there a or in Manhattan or then didn’t make it so throughout. So I did have somebody. I did have a guy that I used to date that his father was on the very high 100 something floor, and he was there early in the morning. He didn’t make it. We had many people that had stories of like getting on the train, then getting Manhattan, and then, like, running for their life. So fortunately, I did not know other than that one person who I really wasn’t really directly connected to at that time, did not know anybody that that did not make it, but you called all your friends and family, and you made sure that everybody got home safely.

And then you started hearing of people that you worked with, and you know all the I work with, a lot of school teachers that dated firefighters and were married to firefighters, and so many firefighters died because they all went to try and help and and it they went in blindly, not knowing what they were walking into. So it impacted everybody, because everybody knew multiple people and were connected to multiple people that had lost their lives, and then people that were going down to help, and, you know, wanted to help. And then wha-, And the search began, because people that went missing, they didn’t know if they were not alive, they were in hospitals. But what turns out that most of them just died because they were going hospital to hospital and I remember even they were bringing in 5000 they brought the President, at the time Bush, he ordered in 5000 body bags. And they didn’t need the body bags because there were no bodies, because all the bodies were burned. So it was basically ash, which I’m sure everybody’s heard of since then, at 9?11 all the ash and all the horrible things and all the diseases people got that were working down there for all those days with the the burn, the burnt residue of the day, so life like it impacted everybody because schools were closed, schools weren’t being able to go into so people moved out of Manhattan. So people were coming into Queens, and they were you were permitting them to register into any schools they can get into and people had to open up their homes to people, to others. So it was a big life check for everybody.

OP: And what about your students? Did you realize any change in some of the students and the impact that 9/11 had on them?

FP: So, yeah, so, actually, so a few of the students, I remember, believe one student, we had many students whose parents came. You know, we had to walk home and all of that. I know that one one of my friends, had a girl in her class that wrote a story, this whole horrible, sad story, and it was actually not even true, but they started hearing all these terrible stories, that it started becoming like part of what they were doing, and like thinking that they were living it, even though they weren’t, because they heard it so much. I do believe that we had some family members that did die, but it did not directly affect any students that I knew. So there was a change in lifestyle and security measures in New York City, but I think the bigger impact, being that I would teach in an elementary school was on the teachers than the students.

 

OP: All right, and how is it the next morning after 9/11 were schools in session or were they closed?

 

FP: Schools were not in session, and I think it was for two days, if I remember correctly, we were not for two days.

 

OP: All right, and did life change in New York as a result of 9/11 and how?

 

FP: Yeah, so security, so travel, there was s-, amped up security in everything traveling on, bu-, um, bridges, tunnels, there were actually Marines, Army, you know, The army was there when going, once you were able to even travel into Manhattan, there were soldiers there. There were soldiers on the train stations. There were soldiers, you know, near the cars to they would be checking there was amped up security this whole thing with, get it, forget it like airplanes. Getting on airplanes became, was always like hectic, but getting on an airplane became nearly impossible. It was like a three or four hour wait. Used to be able to take a family member in, if they were traveling internationally, you would be able to walk them into, actually, security, or walk through security and wait with them at the gate, and at that point, then you were only able to, you know, meet them, you know, drop them off outside, there was no pre check in, the whole no liquids on the plane that went into effect, no liquids. Everything was being checked for several months, it was you were on very high alert, and service on phones and stuff were not was not really restored fully for a while, and they and it didn’t really ease up. It’s not really even eased up much now, but it was, security was on such a high alert, and even to this day, you see soldiers like down at Penn Station or at the train stations that never went away.

OP: All right, and have the events of 9/11 continue to impact your daily life now in 2025?

FP: So it it’s yeah, it impacts us because of so you’re aware once you’re you know, because the state, teh state that I live in was impacted so you’re aware that big, horrible events like that can happen. So when there’s amped up security, you don’t really get angry at it. You understand why there is and when there’s more tight security at schools, you understand it when security and when you’re not allowed to just, you know, enter places and they’re and they’re checking people, or they say things are closed down because there was something suspicious going on. It’s not really something you would get angry about and annoyed about, because, in fact, it’s more upsetting when you don’t see that there’s all that security, because you know what the possibilities are and what the result can be.

OP: All right, and lastly, do you think that if we were to be threatened like this again in New York or anywhere in the world, that teachers and school faculty will be more prepared?

FP: Yeah, uh if their school does the right thing, we there is a lot of emergency preparedness training that we go through for various different types of emergencies, one of them being an evacuation, different types of evacuation, evacuation because of a fire, evacuation because of, like, something wrong with the building, and an evacuation because of a world event. And schools have policies in place what you do and where you go and you and and there are like mapped out guidelines so that you’re not worrying that day when there are 1000 parents lined up, how are we getting all the kids out safely. So if the school, if the teachers are taking those courses and listening to the safety plan, which is something that’s gone over multiple times in schools and regularly, and understanding the evacuation plan, if that is all done correctly, we are in much better shape now than we were, because a thing could happen again, but we have to be prepared to know what to do with the kids, and it can’t be like chaos, because that could create more of a problem.

 

OP: All right, perfect, Thanks Fredda!

 

FP: Okay, bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

 

Research:

As many know, 9/11 was a very sad day in history in not only New York but all over the world. Although many people know about this tragic event, many people don’t know the factors that led up to this event. 9/11 was one big terrorist suicide attacks that targeted the world trade center and the Pentagon. This attack was carried out by the al-Qaeda founded by Osama Bin-Laden and 4 others because of the Soviet Union invasion on Afghanistan later making him very hostile to the United States, later showing one of his biggest attacks on us 9/11 as well as many attacks following not only just in the United States. 

In addition to the historical context of 9/11, there are also many articles out there that cover topics just like this interview. For example, articles talking about what precautions New York City teachers took the day of the attack to keep the kids and themselves safe and calm as well as articles giving us a play by play of the events that occurred the day of the attack. Some including timestamps, some including locations, some including even what specific people were doing at specific times for example, President George W. Bush. 

Bibliography:

Huiskes, Katherine. “Timeline: The September 11 terrorist attacks.” Miller Center, https://millercenter.org/remembering-september-11/september-11-terrorist-attacks. Accessed 28 February 2025.

Payne, James L. “What Do the Terrorists Want?” The Independent Review (Oakland, Calif.), vol. 13, no. 1, 2008, pp. 29–39. Accessed 15 March 2025. 

Schwartz, Sarah. “Teaching 9/11: Educators Reflect on How They Broach the Tragedy with  Students.” Chalkbeat, 6 Sept. 2021, https://www.chalkbeat.org/2021/9/6/22655831/september-11-20-year-anniversary-memories-students-teachers-classrooms-twin-towers-terrorism-usa/. Accessed 28 February 2025.

 

Follow-up Commentary and Brief Technological Notes:

For this interview we used zoom and recorded our interview through that platform due to the fact that we were not in the same place at this given time. Before starting the interview we did a test run with the recording to make sure that we could hear what we were saying and were not having any technical difficulties. Throughout the transcription process I was able to complete most parts in sections that later on made it easier to complete and put into one big transcription.