10/06/05 - Silver Chips Online - Montgomery Blair High School

October 6, 2005
ilverCHIPS FEATURES
21
ace-to-face with terrorism in the U.K.
Blazers reflect on their time in London during this summer’s terrorist tube bombings
By AUDREY KUBETIN
It was Blair graduate Danielle
Prados’s broken alarm clock that
saved her life. Had it rung as
planned on the morning of July 7,
she might have become a statistic,
another casualty of the summer’s
London subway attacks.
Instead, she overslept. “My
alarm clock didn’t go off. Otherwise,
I would’ve been in the tube
station,” says Prados, who was
in London studying with a group
from New York University.
That morning, three suicide
bombings on the London subway
and one on a double-decker bus
killed 52 people and injured at
least 700 more. Besides Prados,
at least four Blair students were in
or near London when the terrorists
struck. Although their time
in a country under siege revived
memories of the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks in the U.S., witnessing the
British response to terrorism left
the five students with a newfound
respect for the people of London.
“Under siege”
At 8:50 a.m., Prados had been
sleeping in her dorm around the
corner from Russell Square when
the first of what would be four
deadly bombs exploded with
enough force to shake the building
in which she slept.
At first, Prados didn’t know
what had happened. One of her
roommates returned to the apartment
to say that she had tried
to enter the Russell Square tube
station but was met with a
stampede of panicked commuters
fleeing the station. “We
thought it was one of those
London transportation issues,”
explains Prados, a 2002 Blair graduate,
in a telephone interview from
London. “London transportation
is famous for its breakdowns.”
Half an hour later, Prados ventured
outside and realized what
had happened. Before her in Russell
Square, ambulances, police
cars and other rescue vehicles attended
to the victims of the day’s
first bombing.
The other Blair travelers had a
less intimate view of the attacks.
Senior Clare Marshall was in summer
school at the British American
Where in Blair?
Drama Academy in London when
the bombs detonated. The dean
of the academy called for an allschool
meeting to break the news
to the students and told them,
“London is under siege.”
Marshall was shocked and
saddened by the tragic news. “I
couldn’t believe it,” she says. “It
was the last thing I was expecting
to hear.”
Meanwhile, news of the attacks
was spreading across the country
like wildfire. At the time of the
bombings, sophomore Julia Mazerov
and her family were driving
out of London. After passing
an electric sign along the highway
that read, “Turn the radio on,” they
tuned their car radio to the news
and were immediately transfixed
by the unfolding story. “[Coverage
of the attacks] was on every
single station,” she remembers.
“We were on a five-hour drive,
and we listened the whole way.”
At first, they were told only that
there had been an explosion on the
London Underground. When the
news broke that terrorists were
responsible for the blast, Mazerov
realized how lucky she and her
family had been. “We were supposed
to take the tube that morning,
but we changed our plans,”
she says.
Miles away in Cheltenham, a
borough about two hours south
of London, senior Amelyne
Major and her family went into
a pharmacy and were told by a
clerk that there had been at least
one bombing in London. At first,
“we had no idea how huge it
was,” remembers Major. Still, she
was afraid that more terrorist attacks
were planned throughout
England.
For Major, the bombings
brought back the fear and uncertainty
she had felt during the Sept.
11 attacks in the U.S. “It was just,
like, ‘Oh God, now this is happening
here,’” she says.
Déjà vu
For these Americans in London,
witnessing the London bombings
revived unpleasant memories
of the Sept. 11 attacks. When
he heard the news of the London
bombings, junior Nick Wolf
couldn’t help but compare them
Photo by Rayna Andrews
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to Sept. 11. Safe inside the thick
ramparts of the Tower of London
at the time, the bombings “didn’t
leave a fear, a nervousness,” he
remembers. “The whole shock of
Sept. 11 wasn’t there.”
Mazerov agrees that being in the
U.S. on Sept. 11 affected her more
than being in England during the
bombings. Although she admits
the news of the London bombings
was unexpected and troubling,
Mazerov feels the experience left
her emotionally and mentally unchanged
in the long run. “I don’t
want to say... I was used to it because
of 9/11, but it really didn’t
affect me,” she says.
Remembering how she felt
when her own country was under
attack, Major sympathized
with Londoners. “I felt it was bad
enough for the U.S. to have to deal
with [terrorism], and it was horrible
that England had to deal with
it now,” she says.
While terrorism may be new
to Americans, Londoners have
had decades of experience with
it. Prados notes that, while Londoners
were shaken by the July
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attacks, “they’re more hardened
to these types of situations because
of the IRA,” referring to the
Irish Republican Army, a terrorist
group infamous for bombing British
pubs, tube stations and other
civilian targets. The British “had
dealt with bombings before. This
wasn’t new,” explains Prados.
Grace under fire
During the early years of World
War II, London was barraged almost
nightly by Nazi bombers in
what became known as the London
Blitz, after “blitzkrieg,” the
German word for “lightning war.”
Although hundreds of people lost
their lives in these attacks and
thousands more were forced to
seek shelter each night in tube stations,
Londoners tried to live their
lives as usual. Ever since, they
have had a reputation for being
able to sweep up the rubble and
move on with their lives after any
disaster. The Blair students who
were in London during the tube
bombings witnessed this quality
firsthand.
matters into my own hands.”
Senior Gillian Couchman realized that,
even though many of the victims of the hurricane
are getting immediate resources and
care, they have an enormous long-term problem:
beginning a new life with almost nothing.
Couchman and her family decided to
open their home to a family in need. “Right
after we saw all the terrible stories of people
on the news, my mom just decided that we
had the space, so it was something we needed
to do,” explains Couchman. “My mom
called the Red Cross the next day.”
For now, the Couchman household shows
only small signs of change. The basement
has been cleared out, and extra beds have
been set up downstairs. A lock was put on
the basement door to give the new family
some added privacy. Still, Couchman knows
the change will be dramatic. “It’s weird, because
it’s almost like my whole life is about
to change — I’m practically adding to my
family!” exclaims Couchman.
As new families settle into the Washington,
D.C., area, Couchman’s life will not be
the only one to change. More than 70 new
students from the Gulf Coast have enrolled
in MCPS since the hurricane, according to
the MCPS web site. Senior Sebastian Johnson,
the Student Member on the Board of
Graphic by Camille Mackler
Wolf, for example, wasn’t worried
when he heard the news of
the attacks. “I honestly trusted the
British police and what was going
on. I felt safe,” he says.
Likewise, Major commends the
Londoners for their determination
and strength. “The British people
were really supportive of each other
and knew they had to keep going,”
she says. “If they didn’t, the
bombers would win.”
Despite the terrorist attacks,
Major’s view on London has
stayed the same, and she wouldn’t
hesitate to go back. “I didn’t feel
like this was any reason for me to
stay away,” says Major.
Prados, who has not been back
to the U.S. since the attacks, agrees.
If anything, watching the Londoners
manage the attacks has improved
her impression of the city.
In the aftermath of the bombings,
she notes that Londoners were
helpful to one another, composed
about the situation and considerate
of those injured or affected by
the bombings. “It gave me a little
more confidence in the future of
humanity,” says Prados.
Blazers aid Katrina relief
Education, applauds MCPS students for
taking the initiative to “reach out to these
students and make them feel welcome.” On
Sept. 26, Johnson took a day-long tour of
two of the schools the new students are now
attending in order to greet these students as
members of MCPS. Johnson hopes his trip
will help ease the trauma of displacement
for the students and help pave the way for
recovery.
Shane Perrault, a psychologist for the
Adolescent and Adult Behavioral Consultation,
says in a phone interview that displaced
children and adolescents could show
symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder,
such as anxiety and depression, for years to
come.
Still, Kuttner belives that those who are
not directly affected by a tragedy often continue
with their lives and forget about what
has happened. “I look back at how I reacted
to the tsunami, and I felt bad, but it was
easy to move on,” she says.
But this time, Kuttner will not move
on: She is already planning on returning
to New Orleans next summer to work for
Habitat For Humanity with her friends,
confident that New Orleans will return to
the vibrant city she once knew. “I know it’s
not going to be the same for awhile, but it’s
just that kind of city people love too much
to let it die,” she says.