Students at Plains Junior School in Liberty Township watched their own teachers and staff describe Sept. 11, 2001, in a documentary one social studies teacher filmed himself.

Jonathan Ferrell, a social studies teacher at the Lakota district school, interviewed colleagues about their memories of the attacks and screened the finished film during classes on Friday, Sept. 11. The project grew from a lunchtime conversation when Ferrell learned a colleague had been in New York during the aftermath of the attacks.

"I knew there were more stories in the building, so I reached out and asked the staff to participate," Ferrell said. "I did not have to beg at all. They willingly came forward."

The standout account came from Dana Marra, now an instructional aide at Plains Junior. Marra was working near New York City when the planes hit. She was also a volunteer EMT and firefighter, and in the days that followed she joined search-and-rescue operations at Ground Zero. She worked alongside cadaver dogs to help bring closure to families waiting for news.

Marra described her fire department boots as "knee high in pure ashes" and recalled everything around her being gray, with the smell of dirty metal everywhere. She told students she does not consider herself a hero despite the work she did.

The documentary mixed those firsthand accounts with news clips from the day of the attacks. Other staff members recalled the confusion of a normal morning upended. Lauren Downs, now a teacher leader at Plains, was a Lakota freshman in 2001. She remembered walking out of her third-bell Spanish class and hearing from a friend that a bomb had gone off in New York. Math teacher Scott Mueller, then in his third year at Hopewell Junior, said he initially thought a small plane had struck the tower before seeing the footage.

Business teacher Tom Thompson described his reaction to the second plane as stunned. Hannah Sofe, an eighth grader at the time, feared for her aunt and uncle who worked at the Pentagon. Sydney Holman was a kindergartener whose school closed early as a safety precaution. Math teacher Leanne Kniffen shared a memory of her principal playing the national anthem over the school intercom in the days after the attacks.

Ferrell himself was a college student on Sept. 11, 2001, sitting in an 8 a.m. class where the topic that day was how news travels. He did not hear about the attacks until after class.

Ohio does not require schools to teach about 9/11. Districts control their own curricula, according to the state Department of Education & Workforce, as the Associated Press reported. At least 40 states expect or suggest that public schools address the attacks in some way, but Ohio is not among them.

Students in Ferrell's fifth-bell class reacted right after the screening. One student said the documentary stood apart from a textbook because teachers were sharing their own experiences.