Stair Climbing Memorial: Tulsa Tech Students Remember The Fallen of 9/11

Students at Tulsa Tech started class at 8 A.M. Friday, but it wasn't just a normal day of instruction. For many, it meant something more.

110 flights. That was the height of the World Trade Center, and Tulsa Tech students climbed the same number of stairs at their school to honor the fallen first responders from 9/11.

"It leaves a big impact on other students, and it's like telling this person, this person lost their life, and we're just running stairs for them," said Tulsa Tech criminal justice student Rosy Hernandez.

This exercise was hard, but nothing compared to the responders' sacrifice that day.

"When you really think about what they did, it's just, it's hard to put your needs first, I guess," said team leader and criminal justice student Guy Scaff.

While climbing, students and teachers wore the names of the 72 responders who died.

"We really wanted them to carry the badges of the fallen because we want them to know that they're carrying them home," Denise Henry said.

Henry is a Police Officer and criminal justice instructor at the school. She is proud of her students, the very first class where everyone was born after the attack.

"I think these kids grasp it so much more than some of the adults do," she said.

Many of the students said this activity helped them learn about that day, more than any textbook could.

"We could really read books, chapters, but we won't understand it. We just think oh, it's a book. Doing this is more like, oh this is what they went through, this is what they're doing, what they did," Hernandez said.

After more than an hour of going up and down the steps, the students finished their rounds at exactly 9:11 in the morning.

On 9/11, the students will watch a video to learn more about the first responders' sacrifice on that day.