A 17-year-old who was injured in the deadly terrorist attack Tuesday in lower Manhattan went to school the next day “because he was working on 100 percent perfect attendance,” New York City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña said.
The teen was on a school bus when it was struck by the suspect’s truck just across from Stuyvesant High School.
The collision left the school bus mangled. Another student on that school bus, a 14-year-old girl, was injured, suffering a fractured hip, internal bleeding and a laceration to the liver. Two adults on the bus were also injured.
Eight people were killed and 12 others were injured in the attack, which started when the suspect mowed people down on a bike path. A police officer shot and injured the suspect, ending the threat.
Fariña said she talked to the injured 17-year-old who returned to school. He told her, “I told myself I’m going to be fine because a lot of people want to help me.”
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio visited this morning with students and school officials at Stuyvesant High School, including a teacher who was on the bike path at the time of the attack. That teacher was injured but still went to work the following day, the mayor said.
After the incident, the students at Stuyvesant High School thought it was “their duty to be back” at school to mourn those who were lost and to show that “terror would not stop us,” de Blasio said.
The mayor said it “very moving” to hear teenagers think about their responsibility to respond to an act of terrorism.
De Blasio, who spoke to the media this morning after visiting the school, told reporters that everyone at the school “handled a very tough situation exceptionally well.”
“The training and preparation worked,” he said of the school security protocols. “They called the alert immediately to shelter in place and students could tell it was not a drill. … No one stopped and questioned.”
De Blasio said while the school was on lockdown, “students of all backgrounds, every nationality, every faith,” were checking on each other and supporting each other. De Blasio said students told him they had great faith that all the adults in the building were protecting them.
Overall, the solidarity in the school was very evident, the mayor said. “Everyone had each other’s backs and they knew they had to be there for each other,” de Blasio said. “And no one, no one, expressed to us a sense of fear or insecurity. They simply were resolute. And it was very very admirable.”
The man suspected of plowing into the victims is 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov. He allegedly was inspired by ISIS videos he watched on his cellphone, according to the criminal complaint against him. Saipov was charged Wednesday with providing support to ISIS and violence and destruction of motor vehicles.
