Beatrice, a 20-year-old Italian immigrant, discusses her impressions of the American school system and issues of safety after experiencing the 2001 terrorist attacks on NYC:
Everyone was just white. In my class there were no Blacks, no Chinese. All my friends were just white. I mean I’m not prejudiced or anything, but here people integrate more. There, I mean everyone is Italian. There’s no one from England or France or anything. It was very—it’s just, I don’t know, it was a culture shock. Oh, and it was right after 9/11 too. 9/11 happened on my third day of school, and I didn’t speak any English. My mom sat next to me and had to translate everything because I didn’t know what was going on. And it was just, it was very scary, that’s all. I didn’t feel safe here, I didn’t like where I was, I didn’t like the people at school… I stuck out. Like I was just used to a different kind of life.
