A First-Hand View Of History

Michael Alexander, right, holds a school scrapbook, as Natalia Pinkney, left, Tyler Radkey, second from left, and Byron Mitchell look on. The group were students at the school when President Bush visited on Sept. 11, 2001.

AP photo

By LIZ BABIARZ Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: Sep 8, 2006

SARASOTA COUNTY - Five years ago, Tyler Radkey was one of 16 second-graders at Emma E. Booker Elementary School reading the book, "My Pet Goat," to the president of the United States.

Like his classmates, Tyler, then 7, didn’t understand what was happening when Bush’s face reddened, after an urgent whisper in his ear, and why he suddenly had to leave the room.

His first thought was that Bush had to use the bathroom “really bad.”

When they learned later that morning what had happened, the students struggled to grasp the historical moment. Many had never heard of the World Trade Center.

But over the past five years, Tyler and his classmates have grown up and now have a better understanding of what happened that day.

With a crush of attention they have come to expect as another 9/11 anniversary approaches, the former Booker Elementary students were brought together by the school district last month for interviews with the media.

The students reflected on the events five years ago and talked about Bush’s leadership, the security of the nation and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I think about [the terrorist attacks] every day, and I don’t think I should have to be scared walking around,” said Byron Mitchell, who is now a high school sophomore. Natalia Jones-Pinkney, who was selected to ask the president a question Sept. 11, said if given the opportunity again, she would ask: “Are we ever going to be safe again?”

“It doesn’t feel safe all the time,” said Natalia, 12. Tyler’s views have changed as well. After he shook the president’s hand, he was impressed with Bush, he said. But after years of watching the news from Iraq and Afghanistan, Tyler has a different opinion. “He can do a better job,” said Tyler, now a seventh-grader at Booker Middle School. “There’s been wars and people killed and other awful things. It’s just not right.’’

Not all the students see things Tyler’s way.

Though Bush has been criticized for waiting nearly seven minutes to take charge after he was told the nation was under attack, students who were there defended his reaction.

“He did what he had to do,” said Stevenson Tose-Rigell, who was a fifth-grader and in the school library with Bush on Sept. 11. “You can’t judge a man on seven minutes. It’s not like he could get from Sarasota to New York City in seven minutes to save someone.”

The footage of Bush continuing to read with students at Booker Elementary after learning about the attacks was widely publicized in Michael Moore’s film “Farenheit 9/11.”

Teacher Sandra Daniels, who was leading the class, wouldn’t comment on Moore’s film, but said she thinks Bush did the best he could under the circumstances.

Being a part of the historic day appears to have only slightly influenced the students’ future aspirations.

Stevenson wants to be an entrepreneur, a musician or an athlete. He no longer strives to be a banker in New York City. Tyler would like to play football or work as a defense lawyer; he’s pretty certain he would never sign up for the military.

The students and their families have a sense of pride about Booker Elementary’s role in Sept. 11. Tyler’s mother has a picture of him reading to Bush hanging on her bedroom wall. Stevenson has the picture of himself sitting behind the president.

But the children struggle to understand their place in history and how a day that was supposed to be a celebration of their improved reading scores changed so quickly. “I got to be a part of history,” said Stevenson. “Not that it’s a good thing, but it happened.”

And the day will probably connect the students forever.

“I feel we are all bonded because we shared that experience,” said Michael Andrews, 15, a sophomore at Booker High School. “We all have the same feeling: Why did this happen? And that feeling will keep us together.”