Commemorative Page
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Commemorative Page |
I was a stay-at-home mom at the time. My 8 -year-old was at school and I was getting my other 2 children (8 mos. & 4 yrs.) ready to leave. We were watching the prelaunch activities on the news. The launch was just about ready to happen when we needed to leave to take my 4-year-old to preschool at GRCC. When we arrived at the preschool, everyone was upset. The teachers & other parents told me what had happened. I did not believe it. I had just seen the shuttle on TV only moments earlier. It was truly a shock.
January 28th, is the anniversary of the Challenger Disaster. Do you remember where you were? Do you remember how you felt? Here are some of the memories of that tragic and unforgettable day as told by the staff at Dick Scobee Elementary School.
I was at home with 2 young children and a baby. My heart sank, and my stomach felt ill. I even remember feeling goosebumps as I watched the television with disbelief. I called my husband at work because I needed to be with another adult. Really, we hardly talked, just shared the silence.
My friend, along with her husband and 6 year old son were at the actual launch sitting with the Scobee family when the accident occurred. They had been so excited to receive the invitation (this was the invitation that Jim Fugate had politely declined - and my friends son upon hearing about this wrote a letter to Mr. Fugate asking if he could go instead - a pretty brave thing for a 1st grader to do I thought). So, as I was watching the disaster unfold on television, I was also thinking of my friend and her son, and how difficult it would be for him to understand what was happening right before his eyes.
I was in sixth grade and sitting in chapel. We were singing, when a secretary rushed in to tell our principal something. When we stopped singing, he (principal) walked up and told us what happened. We didn't have any TV hook-ups in our school, so I had to wait until I got home to see the actual footage.
On the day of the crash I had just arrived at Evergreen Heights. I was in the office getting ready for the day of Kindergarten. Teddy Ellie the secretary told me what the news had just announced. It was something none of us could believe.
I was living in Tucson, Arizona at the time and was working for a civil engineering firm. Someone was listening to the radio and told all of us what had happened. We were in shock. When I got home I saw the tape on the news. They played it over and over again for days. I remember watching the tape and feeling sad and sick. It didn't seem real. It seemed far away and impossible. I can still see it in my mind like it was yesterday. It is something I will never forget.
I was in my first year of teaching in South Dakota. The week prior to the accident, my first grade class had read about the members of the crew in our Weekly Reader. We were all very excited about what was going to happen. When the accident occurred, my class and I were astounded. We were lucky, however. We were not watching it on TV. My students were very devastated by the Challenger Disaster because they had made comments the week before that they wish I could have been the teacher chosen. They wanted to see me teach them lessons from space. When reality set in, the children were saddened to know that the crew had died, but they were relieved that I was not one of them. It was definitely a sad time for us all.
I don't think I will ever forget that day. I was teaching first grade in Smithfield, Utah. The whole staff had followed the entire process of a teacher being selected for that mission. I even remember students asking our staff members if we were going to try to be "that teacher-astronaut" in space. I guess we all felt that we were going along on the voyage.
Our school had cable television, so all the students were watching the shuttle launch. At that time, launches were not as common as they are today, so we were really excited that it was going to happen during school time so that we could see it. Everything looked great as the countdown happened and the launch began. When the explosion occurred, there was a feeling of utter shock -- all of us felt as though our hearts hit rock-bottom. It was so incredible to think that something like that could happen. Realizing what had happened, we turned off the televisions and tried to talk about what had just happened. Later in the day I remember passing staff members in the hall who were crying and almost in shock. It was definitely a sobering day.
I was teaching first grade on the west coast of Florida and we would watch the shuttle lift off on T.V. and then go outside to watch the trail in the sky once it cleared the treeline. As we stood outside our classroom we saw the trail split and form a y like shape. We all wondered what had happened when our PE teacher came running out to say that there had been an explosion. We went back in and watched in horror the unfolding story of the tragedy.
I was walking to class at Bellevue Community College. I saw a crowd of people standing around a tv set in a lounge and stopped to watch. I was in disbelief at first and then I realized that our space program was being abused by the amount of shuttles being launched during that time period. We felt infallible.
I was in 8th grade and Sister Rosalia ran the tv into our room as she was crying and told us to turn it on to channel four. I remember watching it and thinking it was not real. My teacher started to cry and I remember feeling sad but unable to grasp the feeling of it all. It wasn't until I was a little older did I realize the tragedy as it really was.
I was working with troubled teenagers at RVTI in the horticultural program. We brought in a television to watch in the portable.
It was a very exciting week at school in January 1986. Our teacher was talking about how the first teacher would be going into space. When it was close to the time for the launch our class went to the gym with the rest of the school. We sat down and watched the t.v. The countdown began...we became very excited, for most of us this was the first time that we had an opportunity to watch a launch. The Challenger went up and came back down. The staff was in shock. We went back to our room and discussed what happened.
I was just returning to my apartment after classes at the University of Montana. I turned on the TV and it was on all the channels. I sat down and cried. I was 21.
