I was at my job, counselor for the boys at a residential treatment center. Someone told me about the planes crashing, then Management pulled the other counselors and me into their offices and made it clear that they did not want the children to know what was happening.

About the time we were being told this, the unit staff member on the teen girls’ side flipped on the tv, blowing the possibility of keeping it a secret. Pretty soon I was doing an impromptu group with the teenage boys, telling them what had happened and encouraging them to stay calm. This was a challenge, as most of these guys already had issues with violence.

I remember two or three of the guys saying they were going to join the military—they were 15 or 16 years old. There was a lot of outcry, mostly focused on “Let’s kill them!!!” meaning the terrorists. And while these kids were emotionally extreme, looking back, they basically expressed the same sentiments that many, many Americans did in the shock of the aftermath of 9/11.

Personally, once I was away from work and not worried about the boys, I remember feeling very uneasy, like what if the planes crashing into the twin towers was only the beginning? What if the next attack was by my home? It was a very anxious time.