Principal Zacery Brown and members of the East Ridge High School JROTC salute as the American flag is raised Friday. The Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps at East Ridge High School hosted a Sept. 11 memorial on the school’s football field Friday morning. Former U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp and East Ridge’s Mayor Brent Lambert spoke during the memorial.Simon Parker was only in kindergarten when terrorists hijacked four jetliners and caused mass destruction in lower Manhattan, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.
Though he was only five years old at the time, Parker says some things about that day stick out in his mind.
“I just remember my dad watching the TV. Nobody was talking,” the 15-year-old said. “I didn’t know why, but I knew I wasn’t supposed to talk.”
Parker, now a sophomore at McCallie School, said the topic of Sept. 11 hasn’t come up very often in his classes in the decade since the attacks.
“It’s definitely talked about the week of,” he said.