Most people in the United States saw what happened Sept. 11, 2001, when hijackers steered two airplanes into the World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon. Many Americans were scared, many were mad, and many were worried -- and not just about the terrorists.

Many adults worried about the short- and long-term impact on children, considering the massive media coverage of the disaster. Indeed, many parents turned off the television when their child was in the room, thinking the images could have an ill effect.

Y-Press recently interviewed students at Speedway Junior High School to see if those images really affected them. If their responses are indicative of Indianapolis children as a whole, parents have little need to worry.

Emma Cushman-Wood, 12, Nick Howrey, 13, Kate Lee, 12, Alexandra Maignan, 12, Nick May, 12, and Nouri McLucas, 13, were at school during the attacks. Alexandra was living in New York: "I was scared. . . . Everyone was getting worried, and kids were going home. All that was going through my mind was that my parents were nearby in Manhattan.

"A lot of my friends were affected," she continued. "Some of their parents got hurt, and a few family members died."

Kate was in Indianapolis, and she, too, remembers her fears on that day. "We watched it on TV at my school. . . . When we saw more of it, we just got really scared. I was very scared because my uncle lives in New York," she said.

However, the other Indianapolis students were not so deeply affected.

"I saw all these parents come into the school and take their children out. So I'm still like clueless, and later on in the day I found out what happened, and I'm like really shocked," Nouri said.

The word trauma is applied to many situations, but what does "trauma" mean to these students?

"I define trauma as a terrible event that hurts you deeply, and not necessarily physically. Trauma is mostly a mental destruction," Nick Howrey said.

"I think trauma would be something that is shocking, either emotionally or physically, and it affects how you live your life," Emma added.

In general, these students said traumatic events don't affect them unless they involve someone or someplace close to them.

But they all agreed that they feel better when they talk about events that bother them.

"When something devastating happens and students talk about it, it helps to relieve the problem. But when you ignore it, the problem just gets bigger and bigger sometimes," Alexandra said.

Most of the students said they talk with relatives more than friends when something upsetting happens. They agreed that if troubling events happen during the school day, as 9/11 did, teachers should do their best to answer students' questions.

"I think that teachers should tell their students what happened, but I think they should tell them in a calm way and an informative way so that the children wouldn't get scared," Nouri said.

However, some of the students said it depends on the child's age. Nick May said, "Talking to older kids about the trauma would be helpful to inform them, but the younger kids, it would just make it worse because they would worry so much more."

The students, like most people, agreed the events of Sept. 11 were horrible and tragic, but they said some good has come from them.

"What happened with 9/11, since it was negative, it brought America together and America grew stronger, and I think that's better. If that never happened, everyone would be just worried and distracted, and they wouldn't come together as we are now," Alexandra said.

These students said they are no longer haunted by the attacks. Nouri said many Americans must feel the same way: "After 9/11, people were starting to talk about people bonding together . . . but people still don't seem to be really all that close. I mean, they do seem to be a little bit closer, but not that much closer."

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Rebecca Salois, 14.

REPORTERS: Jordan Denari, 13; Akilah Michel, 13; Daniel Morgan, 11; Lauren Seaman, 13; Christina Wadelton, 10.