I was in Mrs. Wagman’s algebra class at Dover High School. It was a warm day and since we were in the older part of the school without air conditioning, the windows were open, and someone came to the door of the classroom and told Mrs. Wagman to close the windows because there had been an accident in the chemistry lab. I remember thinking “Why are we CLOSING the windows? Shouldn’t we open all the windows?” But I was too shy to say anything out loud.
what else could she have done?
Nothing else was said to us and at the end of the day, we boarded the buses and went home, knowing nothing. It wasn’t until we got off of the bus and saw our neighbor’s parents frantically throwing their belongings into the back of their station wagon and screaming for him to get into the car that we realized something was up.
But our parents refused to leave and so we spent a few sleepless nights, after a crash course in what a “meltdown” was, not knowing what was going to happen.
On the anniversary, I always think of Mrs. Wagman closing the windows of her classroom and thinking how, if the worst had happened, what a futile gesture it was. And yet, what else could she have done?
Melissa