On September 11, Loretto Academy’s junior class honored the memory of the victims of the 2001 terrorist attack by taking a vow of silence.

Members of the Al-Qaeda terrorist group hijacked four planes on September 11, 2001, in the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil to date.

Two of the planes crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, another into the Pentagon, and the last into a field in Pennsylvania.

In memory of the lives lost on this tragic day in history, the juniors took their vow of silence at the beginning of the day in the Loretto chapel. 

For the rest of the school day, they were not allowed to speak in honor of those who lost their lives and their voices on 9/11.

The vow of silence taken by this year’s junior class was especially significant because it was the first to be taken by a class in which all the students had been born after the events of 9/11.

The tragic shooting that occurred here in El Paso last August also changed the meaning of this solemn vow of silence.

Kaitlyn Horn, the president of the junior class, said, “This year we wore orange ribbons to signify what happened in El Paso.

“It brought us together as a junior class because we understood to some little extent what people were feeling on that day of 9/11,” Horn said. 

At the end of the school day, the juniors gathered in the foyer and broke their vow of silence with a prayer and their classification cheer.

Although this generation of students — and the generations to follow — were born after the 9/11 attacks, they understand the sacred duty of remembering and respecting the past.