Students from R.J. Frank Middle School in Oxnard laid flowers on a memorial made of two black granite pillars shaded by a tree to pay respects to eight people who died during the 9/11 attacks 25 years ago.
The memorial was erected with in months of Sept. 11, 2001 to honor Washington, D.C. students Bernard Brown, Asia Cottom and Rodney Dickens their teachers Sara Clark, Hilda Taylor and James Debeuneure as well as National Geographic Society representatives Joseph Ferguson and Ann Judge.
The eight boarded American Airlines Flight 77 from D.C., that fateful morning bound for the Oxnard middle school and Channel Island National Park, but the flight instead crashed into the Pentagon, killing them and dozens more.
"The people here were very excited
to meet them," said Isabella Navarro eighth grader and Associated Student Body president. "I think they would have had a great time."
Isabella said she and the R.J. Frank students know the story of Flight 77 well. The school has held a ceremony honoring the eight every year since the attacks, but this year's ceremony felt special.
The 25th anniversary ceremony, held at the school's cafeteria at 10:15 a.m., invited past educators to share their stories of what happened that day in a pair of assemblies.
Elaine Daugherty, a former science teacher at the school, helped plan the visit with the National Geographic Society Ferguson, inviting students from outside of California to learn about the Channel Islands National Park.
Her former colleague and the school's namesake, Robert J. Frank, established a tradition of taking avid science students to learn about the national parks locally, and Daugherty hoped to expand that tradition, she said.
Daugherty and Ferguson had spoken over the phone the night before the flight just to make sure their Channel Islands excursion was in order, but hours later, the plane crashed into the Pentagon, killing the 59 passengers aboard the hijackers and about 125 people in the building.
Ernesto Centeno Araujo covers breaking news for the Ventura County Star. He can be reached at ecentenoaraujo@vcstar.com, 805-437-0224 or @ecentenoaraujo on Instagram and X.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: 9/11 victims bound for Oxnard middle school honored in annual ceremony
