Olathe West keeps 9/11 memory alive 25 years later with survivor stories and steel

OLATHE, Kan. — KSHB 41 reporter Elyse Schoenig covers Johnson County. She also focuses on issues surrounding the cost of healthcare, saving for retirement and personal debt. Share your story idea with Elyse.

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Americans have spent 25 years working to remember the tragedy of September 11, 2001 — the lives it claimed, and the lives it changed.

At Olathe West High School, that memory is personal.

Mark McGavran, an Olathe West parent, was on the 61st floor of the South Tower on a work trip 25 years ago today.

"I remember saying something like, 'Mom, we're going outside. I'll call you right back, and I hung up the phone," McGavran said. "What I didn't know at that time was that United Airlines Flight 175 had just struck our building only about 34 floors above us."

He shared his firsthand account with Olathe West High School students.

"When the plane hit, and there was an impact, and there were flames, that's one of those images I'll probably never get out of my mind," McGavran said.

Olathe West is already surrounded by that history. A piece of steel from the World Trade Center is on display inside the school, which also houses a Public Safety Academy training the next generation of first responders.

For Ariel Cervantes-Fernandez, a senior in the Public Safety Academy, keeping that history alive is more than a lesson — it's an obligation.

"You can't really ever forget an event like this," Cervantes-Fernandez said. "And it's, in a way, very disrespectful to forget an event like this."

McGavran said the experience left him with a perspective he carries every day.

"You don't really know what's going to happen. Not every day is promised," McGavran said.

Twenty-five years later, the students at Olathe West learned a lesson not found in any book.

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