South teacher shares Sept. 11 account

Valley Stream South High School social studies teacher Pete Mastrota shared his Sept. 11 story with his 11th grade U.S. history classes last Friday. Mastrota was a teacher at the High School of Economics and Finance, across the street from the World Trade Center, during the 2001 terrorist attacks. From his classroom now, Mastrota pointed to the Robert W. Carbonaro elementary school on the other side of South’s athletic fields. “That’s too far to describe where my school was,” he said.

Mastrota talked about the pandemonium that ensued in and out of the school after the second plane hit, which he said he personally witnessed. “My first reaction was ‘My God, we’re under attack,” he told his students.