Students in Jeff Grose's fourth-period class at Warsaw Community High School believe America will get through Tuesday's terrorist attacks but aren't sure how those responsible should be punished.

"I think people need to calm down just a little bit," said Wendy Trueblood Wednesday. "We've gotten through major crises before, we'll get through this. It may take longer, but we'll get through it."

"I really don't know how to punish someone for doing something like that. The death penalty isn't justice," said Evan Keller.

Thomas Michael said that as for punishment, "What can be equal to one person killing 50,000?"

The students remember exactly what they were doing and where they were when Tuesday's attacks occurred.

"I was at my boyfriend's house and we were sitting there. I was talking to his grandparents. His grandma told me to look at the TV and I looked and realized what was going on," said Allison Powell. "I really didn't believe it."

She said she thought she was watching some kind of "Saturday Night Live" spoof.

Andy Cook didn't believe what was happening either. "I just woke up and turned the TV on. I thought I was still asleep."

Trueblood said she found out while talking to a friend on the phone. "... It was quite frightening," she said.

James Gallagher was already at school when he learned of the attacks. "Our teacher comes into our classroom and starts crying and tells us that we were hit by terrorists. ... It was really scary."

By a show of hands, three-fourths of Grose's class said they are watching the news unfold and paying attention to the daily news on the attacks. The students also recognize there will be major changes in the United States from now on.

"I'm pretty sure that the airlines and airline security will be a lot tighter now," said Amber Hartman. "And I'm pretty sure that security in general around this country will be tightened because I'm sure that this won't go away after a few months. This will be ongoing for years."

She said she sees the increased security as a good thing overall.

At least two of her classmates don't think an increase of security will prevent all future possible attacks.

"You can put as much security as you want in some certain places but it's not going to be able to stop what's going on," said Jerad Shaw. "Some of the stuff you can't stop no matter what you do. When it happens, you have to react to it and make sure they know you're not going to put up with this kind of stuff."

Keller agreed. "We can tighten down security but it's not going to change anything because" there are countries who want to see the U.S. attacked. "No matter what we do, it's not going to stop" unless action is taken.

What kind of action? "Who knows?" he said.

Linda Kim said Tuesday's actions will provoke racism against Arabs. She said, "I think it will change how people treat Afghanistan people here because my boyfriend lives in Fort Wayne and he called me (Tuesday) and he was, like, 'I just saw two white guys beating up and kicking on this Afghanistan guy and people were just standing there like they weren't stopping it or anything.'

"I think it's so wrong because - I know people of his race did it or could have - but that doesn't mean that he did it or he feels that way, too. I think racism is ridiculous."

Powell said Tuesday's terrorist attacks could lead to another world war "because they're saying we're going to get revenge on whoever did it to us. Well, even if it is a small country, or whatever it is, if we bomb them, they're going to have neighbors who'll bomb us and it's going to go back and forth no matter what. I just really think there's going to be no end to it and we're going to have a World War III or something like that."

Could the U.S. keep calm if a war were to happen? If the actions of people Tuesday were any indicator, maybe not. Three of the students saw people panicking because of Tuesday's attacks.

Jenna Spangle said she works at a grocery store and it was chaotic Tuesday. Jorie Brumfield also works at a grocery store and Tuesday night, "Everybody was buying water and a lot of bread. ... A couple of people came through my line and were, like, 'I'm going to buy so much stuff and freeze it.'"

Working at a gas station, Powell said, they had a line for gas that took from 45 minutes to 1-1/2 hours. People were, according to her, fighting and yelling, blaming her for the increased gas prices. "We had nothing to do with it."

Nathan Polston said, "I think it's pretty stupid the gas stations are taking advantage of this crisis."

By a show of hands, most students said their parents bought gas Tuesday because of the attacks.

"Some of the prices," said Shaw, "like $3 a gallon in Michigan City, that's kind of high but I can understand if they go up 20, 30 cents because it is supply and demand. If a lot of people want it, the supply is not going to be as heavy."

Trueblood said if people don't want to pay $3 a gallon, "then don't buy it."

People should calm down, said Blake Dirks. "Seriously, we don't have a lot to worry about here in Warsaw, at least. All we have here is orthopedic companies. It's not like they're going to get all mad over some plastic legs or something."

However, in a poll of the class, four out of five of the students believe that in the next month or two there is a very good chance of another terrorist attack.

Hartman summed up the feelings of many by saying, "I feel absolutely terrible for the families of the victims because they don't know what happened to them, they can't get through to them by cell phones or any other kind of communication. ... I don't really know how they're going to cope." [[In-content Ad]]