9/11 relic sits in Tuscaloosa County schoolhouse for academic year

TUSCALOOSA CO., Ala. (WBRC) - A Tuscaloosa County school is making plans to bring history closer to home to hundreds of students. The big ‘reveal’ will take place at Taylorville Primary School, a Pre-K through Second school. The object is meant to teach, not frighten the little ones.

What Taylorville Primary School will reveal is part of what used to be Tower Number One at the World Trade Center, when the towers came tumbling down on that September day in 2001.

The small steel frame weighs about five pounds, but is worth more than its weight considering the potential lessons behind it all.

“History is one thing but to be able to hold it in your hand and have people touch it takes it to the next level,” said assistant principal Nick Rose.

Taking it to the next level is what assistant principal Nick Rose plans to do next week, showing the relic to more than 500 school children in grades Pre-K through Second during an assembly.

“We’re not going to focus too much on the specifics of that day. We’ll focus on what it means to be Americans. What that looks like,” he said.

The steel frame fell somewhere from around the 93rd floor of Tower One. The fact Taylorville Primary is hosting a small part of tower one is an honor, the only school in the state to do so, according to Nick Rose, courtesy of the Freedom Flag Foundation.

“They work with schools around the country to teach the next generation about September 11 and the fallout from September 11,” Rose said.

And why Taylorville Primary? The school did a little homework.

“Last year we did some activities around the Freedom Flag and when we showed it to our social media account... it went to the national organization,” Rose said.

And so the ‘reminder’ of tower one sits in Nick Rose’s office but will be displayed in the display case in lobby for the entire school year.

“For our faculty and staff it’s remembrance... and that is significant,” said Rose.

Bringing history alive up close and personal, a surviving relic from more than 20 years ago.

To help prepare the students for the big reveal, school leaders say they will have the children study a couple of picture books that explain on their level what happened on September 11, 2001.

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