A Columbia University study carried out six months after the September 11 attacks found a much higher than expected rate of serious mental health problems among New York public schoolchildren. The researchers say that one in ten, 75,000 children, have symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome or other disorders, such as major depression.
One young woman, Scarlet Taveras, and her high school principal, Ada Rosario Dolch, are coping and healing.
Scarlet Taveras was in class at the High School for Leadership and Public Service, just two blocks from the World Trade Center, when the first plane hit.
Sitting in her parents? Bronx living room, she remembers the day.
?The whole building started shaking, and then we started seeing things hitting our school, like through the windows, we saw debris, like paper, on flames, and we were like, okay, what is happening," she said. "We could see things falling, but we couldn?t see from where. And then the second one hit, at like 9:06, and then we were looking up, and that?s when the lights turned off and then flicked back on, and then the room started trembling, and as we looked up, you could see flames coming from the World Trade Center. I just kept thinking that it would be worse, like more places were going to be bombed. Even now, if an airplane falls, I?m always like ?it?s a terrorist attack. They?re like no, it?s not,? and I?m ?yes, it is.
"So do you think you have a little post-traumatic stress?"
?Yes, I do. I get angrier now, I get angrier more, I?m way more sensitive. Like the six-month anniversary, I was so pissed. Like, this is not an anniversary, there?s nothing happy about it, and what the hell are you celebrating
Scarlet?s parents, Jose and Ana Taveras, worry about her mood.
?Sometimes I talk to Scarlet about it, because she is really, really angry," her mother said. "About the psychological, I talk to her because I want her to go see someone, and she tells me she doesn?t want to do it ? and I have confidence in God that everything is going to be okay, and it takes time, it takes time.?
"They have therapists in our school, but people don?t really go to them, because, one, we don?t know them," Scarlet said. "And some kids have trouble trusting them. And at the same time, it?s like you don?t want to talk about it, you just want to avoid it. But our teachers have done the greatest job, they speak to us about it because they know what we went through. Other people - I understand everybody went through horror that day, even people who don?t live in this country. But it?s different when you were actually down there with us.?
One of Scarlet?s teachers founded a knitting club after 9-11. More than 200 students joined.
?This - you could be angry, and start doing this, and it relaxes you," said Scarlet. "Most of the garments we make are for the homeless. It?s nice that everyone?s thinking of us and sending us all these things, but at the same time, we are fortunate, and we?re not that bad off as people think. And homeless people are, so we decided to give back to the people who do need help. And actually, we made a shawl for our principal because ? the school is cold during the summer, with the air conditioner, and we wanted to give her something back that would make her feel nice.?
The principal at Scarlet?s school is Ada Rosario Dolch. On the morning of September 11, Mrs. Dolch allowed herself to think just once about her own sister, Wendy Wakeford, who worked near the top of the North Tower.
"Immediately I could do nothing other than say a prayer, which I did, and it was very simple: ?Lord please take care of her, because I can?t, I?ve got to take care of my kids, she said.
Ada Dolch defied instructions to remain in the building, and led her 600 students and staff to safety in Battery Park, just before the first tower collapsed. Her sister died that day. Mrs. Dolch says she?s still suffering from memory loss and that many of her students also had symptoms even at the end of the school year.