Middle Schoolers Kicked Out of 9/11 Memorial for Throwing Trash in Fountains
- Posted on June 24, 2012 at 11:37am by
Madeleine Morgenstern
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Visitors circle one of two reflecting pools at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, which mark where the Twin Towers once stood. A group of middle school students were kicked out of the memorial during a field trip Thursday after throwing trash in the fountains. (AP)
A group of Brooklyn middle school students were kicked out of the National September 11 Memorial during a field trip Thursday after they threw trash in the fountains, the New York Daily News reported.
“They kicked us out because of littering in the water. Kids were throwing baseballs in the pond thing,” Junior High School 292 eighth-grader Anthony Price told the newspaper.
Witnesses also reported seeing empty plastic soda bottles and other garbage floating in the water.
“They were making jokes and throwing stuff in the fountain. It didn’t seem like a big deal,” a student told the Daily News.

Robert Peraza kneels by his son's name at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum on Sept. 11, 2011. (AP)
Michael Frazier, a spokesman for the memorial, confirmed the students were removed for throwing items in the reflecting pools, which mark where the Twin Towers once stood.
Another student said their actions were not out of disrespect.
“No one was disrespecting. It wasn’t nothing like that,” the student said. “No one was being serious. Everyone was kind of bored and it was just something to do.”
New York Department of Education officials have launched an investigation into what happened, the Daily News reported.
In a separate incident, students said one of their classmates was caught trying to bring firearm ammunition into the site.
“The kid had three bullets when they went through the metal detector,” a student who wouldn’t give his name told the newspaper.
Police confirmed they found three .33-caliber rounds in a plastic bin in the memorial’s security area but said they did not make any arrests.
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum opened last year on the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. In December, a Tennessee tourist was arrested after she tried to check her loaded gun at the site. Originally facing up to three years in prison, she took a plea deal that reduced the charge from a felony to a misdemeanor.
(h/t Mediaite)



















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Comments (240)
RedDirtTexas
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:08pmIt‘s a shame that kid’s have absolutely no common sense today. I guess the chaperones didn’t bother reminding them why the memorial is there in the first place. Little morons will tag it eventually.
Report Post »RJJinGadsden
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:31pmIn my view, it’s not necessarily that these children have no common sense. It is that the parents, older peers, neighbors, and the schools no longer teach them what is right and wrong. Hell, Brooklyn? Look at what they are born into.
Report Post »Then again, look at what they are taught. Today, good is evil, and evil is good. If you don’t want the child in the womb, just kill it before it is born. TV, yesterday’s Leave It To Beaver is now replaced by stories like Glee, and other mind numbing stupidity. Why should you be responsible for yourself when you have the government to do that for you?
MRMANN
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:43pmNo common sense and no respect
Report Post »ccfonten
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:57pmAnd this is what passes for the next generation to lead our great nation?? I hope I do not live long enough to see these jerks take over.
Report Post »PubliusPencilman
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:57pmRjjingadsden,
In the 1950s, when Leave it to Beaver was so popular, segregation was legal, lynching still occurred in many places, opportunities for women were extremely limited and racism, sexism and antisemitism were all tolerated in public discourse.
I’ll take a bit of trash in a fountain over the 1950s any day.
Report Post »mike_trivisonno
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 1:10pmClose down the Department of Education; get the commies out of the schools and kids will begin to learn again.
Department of Education; messing with minds since 1979.
Report Post »RamonPreston
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 1:15pmPubliusPencilman
Report Post »I’ll take the 50s. This country is going DOWNhill; not the other way around. You were indoctrinated in school; not educated.
Jgrnot
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 1:23pmWhat do you expect from Dr Benjamin Spock’s kids. No different than the Spocks kids verbally assaulting the bus monitor. The only solution is to severely punish their parents, then we will see a gradual change.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 1:36pmFINE the School Teachers!
Report Post »PATTY HENRY
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 1:51pmIt‘s the Parents and the School’s faults..these kids aren’t born and raised in a vacuum. They should be made to do community service by cleaning up places and watching some of the news reports of that
Report Post »horrible day. They need to understand what happened to America that day. We can‘t expect our kids to know things if we don’t teach them!
FreedomPurveyor
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 2:03pm“’No one was disrespecting. It wasn’t nothing like that,’ the student said.”
Hmmmmmm
Report Post »forthepeople
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 2:08pmRed Dirt : Just wait till this generation grows up to make OWS just look like a foot note in History ?
Report Post »Gorp
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 3:16pm“No one was disrespecting. It wasn’t nothing like that,” the student said. “No one was being serious. Everyone was kind of bored and it was just something to do.”
So, if I go around slapping middle school kids it‘s not out of disrespect it’s out of boredom and just something to do?
What is this world coming to? There is NO respect for anything anymore. I‘m glad I am 66 years old and won’t have to put up with this crap for much longer.
Report Post »PubliusPencilman
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 3:48pmOh was I indoctrinated Ramon? Really? Now, why would you say that?
Report Post »PubliusPencilman
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 3:50pmGorp,
To answer your question: No, it would not be OK for you to go around randomly assaulting middle school children.
Report Post »13th Imam
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 4:07pmHopefully these stunadents will pee on publis’s parents graves.
Report Post »NHwinter
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 4:12pmThis is the result of Progressive teachers who have no respect for American values and history, unions, parents too busy to actually parent their children, and trash TV. If Americans don’t wake up, these will be the leaders of tomorrow and we will be in more trouble than we are with the Progressives/Marxists that are running the country now.
Report Post »NHwinter
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 4:18pmPubliusPencilman – In the 1950s you could leave your doors unlocked, parents, teachers, and society had morals and the students knew they would be in trouble if they misbehaved. Yes, those things you mentioned were going on also, but as a country we have learned and grown. Now, we are going backward into depravity and crudeness with no morals or respect for our country and what it stand for. If you open your eyes to the destruction that is taking place you could move out of your indoctrinated mind set and into truth. We are being destroyed on every level.
Report Post »Reavin
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 4:35pmPublius,
I‘m not sure if you’ve actually watched TV lately…but, Antisemitism is at an all time high, Sexism is through the roof, Women are still being treated like garbage (I daresay women are less respected in today’s society than they were in 1950, at least on some levels), Segregation is alive and well (unless you can start up a White Entertainment Television cable channel or a magazine called Ivory, and just because Affirmative Action requires somebody to hire somebody who might not be qualified simply because they‘re black doesn’t mean the law isn’t racist ).
Sure, the 50‘s weren’t perfect, but at least then the western world saw that words like Communism and Marxism were not a good thing. There were consequences for people’s negative actions and not everybody got a trophy just for showing up.
Report Post »Gorp
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 4:58pm@Publis:
I was just trying to think on their level. Being bored doesn’t give them the right to throw trash into a memorial, or anywhere else for that matter.
We did have locks on our doors back in the 50‘s but they didn’t work. We’d come home from town and there would be a note on the table saying, “We stopped by, made a pot of coffee and waited to see if you’d come home. When nobody showed up after an hour we left. Give us a call.”
Nothing was ever missing or stolen from our house either. Now you have to keep all doors and windows locked when home or away and damn near walk around your home with a sidearm just in case. If you got in a fight back then you either got your butt kicked or kicked the other person’s and it was done. Now if you look at some idiot wrong they shoot you because you “dissed” them.
The 50′s were great!
Report Post »Elena2010
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 5:42pmThey may have reminded them, but the kids did not listen or heed.
My parents would have tanned my hide had I tried something like that when I was that age. When I was a senior in high school, we took a trip to Arlington and some of our number talked a little too loudly at the Tomb of the Unknowns. The Soldiers there gave a verbal spanking to all. That got the blabbermouths attention well enough!
Report Post »wmgill
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 5:45pmYes it was disrespectful for the to do what they did. But you have to ask the question? Do these kids know what happened that day and what that pllace now stands for. I doubt they are old enough to remember that day. If the do they its an abstract memory without any meaning for they were to young to understand. I also doubt that they have been tought much about it in school. To teach them that Musilm Extremists hijacked 4 planes and used them as weapons would be to politicly incorrect. Disrespectfull yes. To the extent that littering is. Because without context of what happened that day then they dont really know what what they did means to those of us who do remember what happened. Their parrents and teachers should be the ones who are held most responsible for the kids actions for not teaching them what happened and not teaching them just plain old respect. Dont throw you trash anyplace but a trash can. If you do Ill woop your but till you cant sit. A good spanking every now and then is a good thing. Just dont do it in public or you will go to jail. Yep that is the real problem. Government interfearing with our rites to raise out children to have respect. If i tried to complain about a spanking I would have got another for complaining.
Report Post »mils
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:29pmIf obama wants to change something…TRY CHANGING THE SCHOOLS!!..the atmosphere, the lack of educational achievement..26TH in the WORLD RANKING OF NATIONS..USA..
There is not respect..period.
Report Post »TyrannyNoMore
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 10:28pmI think what is in order here, is to sit the these kids in front of a large monitor and show them every bit of news coverage from September 11, 2001. I am talking about everything from the planes hitting the towers, to the people jumping to their deaths on the pavement. Do not let them get up for anything or turn away from the screen. If they do not get up at the end of it and feel shame for what they did, then we truly are screwed as a country, because our youth have no moral compass. I am willing to bet however, there eyes will not be dry, as mine were not that day.
Report Post »loriann12
Posted on June 25, 2012 at 6:15amNo one was disrespecting? No one was serious, just bored and it was something to do? That child needs to look up the term disrespecting in the dictionary. It’s called a reflecting pool because people can stare at it and reflect on the past, on their loved ones, etc. I blame the liberal teacher for not explaining that it’s a very serious matter. I don’t care how bored my kid was, if he did that he wouldn’t be able to sit for a couple days…
Report Post »poorrichard09
Posted on June 25, 2012 at 8:58amThese dumb kids have probably never been allowed to view the film of the horrors of 9/11-it might traumatize the little dears you know.
Report Post »formidable_foe
Posted on June 25, 2012 at 3:17pmIf the fountain wasn’t so deep, I’m sure a couple of them would have just jumped right in. How boring to just look at a couple fountains and have to think about something that happened over ten years ago…. geez!
Report Post »dmerwin
Posted on June 25, 2012 at 4:34pmThe little darlings were “bored”? What the hell do they know about the site. Make each of them write a 10 page annotated paper regarding 9/11, and 40 hours community service picking up litter. Parents of America, WTF?
Report Post »hannah
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:08pmThe parents of those kids should be taught how to raise kids right. They should have to go and clean the mess up their kids made in the fountain.
Report Post »mils
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:30pm“Junior High School 292 Margaret S Douglas, located in Brooklyn, New York, is a public middle school in the New York City Department of Education district. Based on its state test results, it has received a GreatSchools Rating of 4 out of 10.”
Report Post »4 out of 10 rating…EXPLAINS A LOT….
shagstar
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:42pmwhat the hell is a .33 round?
Report Post »RamonPreston
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 1:22pmAnd pay a fine for littering…
You want something to do? Help dad with the yard work. Help mom clean the house. Then you won’t have time to be bored. You learn life’s valuable lessons from your parents, not your peers. They don’t know any more than you do. If you need advice ask someone at least twice your age.
Report Post »JACKTHETOAD
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 1:23pm@SHAG – How many years did Jesus live?
Report Post »Gorp
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 5:03pm@Shagstar: It’s 1/3 of a .99 round. Beats the crap out of me.
Report Post »stewartist
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:06pmDisrespectful BRATS!!!…”Bored!! Nothing else to do!!!??”….How about some MAJOR DISCIPLINE!!!
Report Post »mils
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:19pmso right!…this seems to be typical of children in today’s society.. discipline and respect for who they are, who the people around them are, and what nation they have the privilege of living in..
Report Post »hannah
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:06pmWhat kind of parents do those kids have? Haven’t they ever been taught to care about others? I think the parents should be made to go with their kids and clean up the mess they made.
Report Post »mils
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:21pmalso…a picture of the students?..the school?…..
Report Post »HumbleMan
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:28pmYes … let’s have a public display of their disrespectful faces. They need some national “shame” to rain down on them.
Report Post »shagstar
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:45pmit was mandated by mayor gloomberg!
Report Post »loveliberty83
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:05pmno big deal what kind of parents o you have that you have not been taught to respect any park & pick up your trash you should be banned for life for any parks in America, you sound like the orange crush college group that went to Savannah this summer&7 left all your trash & thought it was funny-that was a black beach party shame on you
Report Post »PaBowHunter
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:33pmThis situation was caused by too many factors to address here, but if you want to specifically target one factor that could’ve prevented this, then you must look at the morons running the New York City education system. The teachers shouldn’t have to remind (or inform) the students what this memorial represents, but unfortunately some students must be reminded. This was the most immediate failure.
AND MAYBE (I DOUBT IT IN THIS SCHOOL), BUT MAYBE if schools would teach students about the attack on our country that was committed 9/11, these kids wouldn’t have “acted stupidly”. But somehow I suspect it wouldn’t have mattered.
Report Post »Shasta
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 1:35pmWhen my kids were young, we would go to the beach, but each have to collect a large bag of trash first. I would not suggest that today. When my kids were young, we would go to the park. When we saw another family trash the park, we cleaned up their mess before we left. SImple lessons that they are teaching their children today
Report Post »AJAYW
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:05pmBlame Bush
Report Post »GeorgieJo
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 2:19pmBlame Obummer.
Report Post »Dde13
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:03pmGood. He should do report on 9/11 and learn a lesson. He should also made aware of the mothers and fathers who are not coming home to their family who died that day and get some RESPECT.
Report Post »Texasboyscout
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:11pmNever happen, there is NO discipline in schools today. I KNOW, my wife has been a primary school teacher for 35 years.
Report Post »Dde13
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:47pm@texas
Report Post »I wouldn’t say NO discipline. I teach and coach, I’m all about respect. Many kids today expect respect but give none. My dad was a Marine and taught me the importance of respect. The problem is there is not enough of it. Many teachers are afraid of dealing with parents or caught up in political correctness. Although I work in a public school my own son is home schooled because of the lack of discipline and respect. I wish your wife the best in dealing with todays juveniles.
Thighmaster
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:01pmFor punishment they should have ben made to clean up trash somewhere fitting in an effort to teach them what their parents have failed to teach. I shudder to think how My dad would have handled Me.
Report Post »ADNIL
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 3:47pmHow about hand writen letters of APOLOGY to EACH family that lost a loved one at that site on that horrible day? ALL 3000+ of them! Maybe after the first 5 or 6 letters these snot nosed juveniles will begin to understand. Too bored? Need something to do? Spend your summer writing letters of apology and no TV or video games or trips anywhere until it is DONE! Only 2954 letters to go!
I swear, we are WAY overdue for a mass extinction.
Report Post »momrules
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:01pmShameful actions by more untrained, ignorant, direspectful brats.
That is MY memorial. MY country was attacked and MY countrymen were killed on 9-11.
Someone please take it upon youselve to teach these and other children what happened on that awful day. Parents, teachers, preachers……..anybody?
Report Post »Thighmaster
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:07pmYou mean you’re not happy with them just learning spanish and mexican history? Remember the Alamo!
Report Post »G-WHIZ
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:12pmThe typical OWS-kids from a PUBLIC middle-school. Everywhere they go…just trash-it!!
Report Post »FiveFreedoms
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 11:58amThe teachers did a poor job of conveying the importance of the venue. Where were the teachers and the chaperones?
Report Post »PASSIONFORCHRIST
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:12pmThe teachers probably encouraged it, No doubt in my mind! If their bored at home do they trash their own homes? BRATS W/NO RESPECT!!!!!!!!!!
Report Post »wdittgasn
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:35pmFivefredom….. Your post makes a very good point….. When in school the teachers are in charge of the students in place of the parents for the time….. They should have taught the kids some proper etiquette, They did when i was young and we went to places like a planetarium or the Smithsonian.
Report Post »Bob_R_OathKeeper
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 11:57amIdiots creating idiots to vote for idiots……..that’s what “progressives” have brought us and over half of this country welcomed it with open arms.
Report Post »Individualism
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:16pmincluding yourself
Report Post »Bob_R_OathKeeper
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:33pmIDIVID – “separation of Church and state deal with it.”
That was your quote on another post and you call me an idiot? LOL, I’ll take that as a compliment, I may not be sharpest tool in the woodshed but you? You have reached rock bottom of stupidity, there is only one way out but you decided to try and dig deeper downward…….keep digging buddy, you’ll find your master eventually.
Report Post »HKS
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 11:56amMaybe the atheist could have been kicked out of the white house for degrading gestures aimed at past presidents. Oh, how thoughtless of me, that would have required some living there that actually cared about America.
Report Post »Fubared
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 11:54amQueer as a .33 cal bullet. Yay NEA! Kudos NEA.
Report Post »Kinnison
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 1:53pmI am former career military and a competitive shooter and I have “a bunch of guns”, and I have never heard of a “.33 caliber bullet”, even in the old cap and ball days. Who do they let write this stuff?
Report Post »JACKTHETOAD
Posted on June 25, 2012 at 7:16amI smell you, pisspot.
Report Post »DREDGE
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 11:54amNice! Well you can’t blame the kids as they are not taught any better by teachers and parents alike.
Report Post »Lack of respect for history, religion, elderly, military, and on and on. However, great respect for rappers, drug dealers, sex, and anything destructive in our society. They are dumbed down to the point of no return. As the future unfolds they will be willingly mowed down and become slaves.
Inlightofthings
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 11:54amI for one am done asking what’s wrong with people. This type of disrespect needs some action….same for the window breaking, urinating thugs masking themselves as community organizers when they are really a societal cancer.
Report Post »Blazebanned
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 11:54amA good beating would stop that crap. And what the hell, a .33 cal. bullet,from where, china? Never heard of a .33 cal. bullet…..
Report Post »chips1
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:28pmIt was a .32 until the bacon grease was added.
Report Post »Jaxco
Posted on June 25, 2012 at 11:13amyeah… must’ve been .22 or .32 – someone goofed… Big hairy deal… someone had ammo, New Yorkers are sissies.
Report Post »FiveFreedoms
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 11:54amNot too surprising, isn’t this the same school system that supported the decision not to have children sing Lee Greenwood’s song? That was followed by parents harassing kindergarten kids for singing patriotic songs off campus? The adults are pathetic!
Report Post »MBA
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:05pmI’m sure the school system did not forget to teach these little hoodlems how to collect their welfare checks and foot stamps.
Report Post »rikyt74
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 11:53amNew York City!
Report Post »Just what do you expect from that Citys children!
JEANNIEMAC
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 11:51amDid these kids even have any idea of what the memorial represented? Are our students shown videos of what happened on 9/11, or is that hushed up because our Muslim man in the Oval Office is “standing by the Muslims?
Report Post »poster
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 4:23pmThese kids don’t have a clue about anything — just like their overpaid, under-worked union teachers. Teachers are too concerned with pay raises, shorter work schedules, smaller class sizes, more benefits, early retirement, tenure, etc. And it shows.
Report Post »hauschild
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 11:49amNot sure what’s more surprising; kids throwing crap into the fountains, or the “adults” actually doing the right thing by kicking the kids out.
Report Post »NancyBee
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 1:03pmGreat point!
Report Post »Optimist4now
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 11:44amBefore being kicked out, they should have been thrown in to retrieve their trash and learn a valuable lesson in respect and responsibility.
Report Post »N37BU6
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 11:55amThen you’d get kicked out for throwing trash in too.
Report Post »Optimist4now
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:13pmN37
Report Post »Not gonna comment on whether or not they were trash, but they should be guided to reflect on their actions. Repect for property, now take a swim and reflect on that while you retrieve the trash that desicrated a national monument.
Lando
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 11:44amkids have always and will always do stupid things… get over it
Report Post »Stiggs
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 11:54am@Lando…about 3000 people died at that single site. Let those kids be disrespectful in their own backyards. You get over it.
Report Post »Stiggs
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 11:56am@lando – That single site is the final resting place for some 3000 people. YOU get over it.
Report Post »john koenig
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:34pm@Lando…OK, we’ll send some kids over to dump garbage on the graves of your parents. You’ll get over it, right?
Report Post »Tri-ox
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 11:43amThis is obama’s America.
Report Post »Rayblue
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:45pmThe worlds a can for their fresh garbage.
Report Post »AxelPhantom
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 11:41amWe said we would never forget. Apparently though, we have allowed our children to do precisely that.
Report Post »BrerRabbit
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 11:40amWe seem to be raising little monsters.
Report Post »Ella
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 4:19pmSeem to be? clearly these parents are raising little self absorbed, it‘s all about me and I’m bored little monsters.
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