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Wednesday, September 11, 2002

By Eleanor Chute, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Perhaps nothing in Susan Taylor's career has brought home her responsibility for children's lives as much as the events of Sept. 11.

Taylor was superintendent of the Moon Area School District when police notified her that United Flight 93, taken over by hijackers, was less than 10 minutes away from Pittsburgh International Airport. She ordered all the students out of their classrooms and into the hallways for half an hour, until they learned the plane had crashed in Somerset County.

"Truthfully, I stood in the hallway and looked at those children and started praying nothing would happen to them. I felt like every child in that school district was my child," she recalled.

Taylor, now a consultant, said that on Sept. 11 this year she expects to pray, but refuses to live in fear. "I think we have to learn to really live our lives ... fully and not let terrorists make us afraid of our every movement."