October 10, 2001
Carried to safety
Becky and Stephanie feared they were trapped - but two heroic paras would not desert their girls

Margaret Espinosa hugs her colleague, Julia Martinez, at NYSUT's annual convention. The two UFTers were honored as NYSUT's SRPs of the Year in April 2002. [related story].

When the twin towers were hit, everyone at the nearby High School of Leadership and Public Service ran for their lives - except for two 16-year-old students, Becky and Stephanie. They couldn't run. Or walk, for that matter. They sat in their wheelchairs, Stephanie crying out, "I don't want to die."

Stephanie's paraprofessional, Julia Martinez, was outside the building at the time and saw the twin towers on fire. "Before I even knew what was happening, I ran back into the building to get Stephanie because I knew she couldn't run," Martinez said.

And para Margaret Espinosa ran to get "my Becky."

For three years, both girls have called their special ed paras "Mommy." And there was no way the two "school moms" were going to desert their girls. Outdoors now, the four of them saw the towers fall. Martinez and Espinosa, both members of the United Federation of Teachers, pushed the wheelchairs as fast as they could but soon they could go no further. There was too much debris, then a thick carpet of grass. Blinded by dust, the four found themselves in the middle of Battery Park.

But Martinez and Espinosa, both small, slight women, didn't hesitate. Espinosa picked up Becky, who weighs about 110 pounds with her leg braces on. Martinez, who has a herniated disk, picked up 98-pound Stephanie. The two of them hoisted the girls up piggyback-style and ran.

Another student, 16-year-old Kerri, was nearby and helped push Becky back up on Espinosa's back whenever she slipped. It was hard for Becky to keep her legs wrapped around Espinosa's waist.

Heading for the river

Like so many others fleeing on that day, their instinct was to head for the Hudson River. They wound up on a restaurant patio at South Ferry. All was well until they realized they were trapped.

"Because we couldn't see, we wound up smack in front of a brick wall where the patio ended. There was nearly a four-foot drop from the wall to the ground. There was no way we could find our way out or climb over and jump with the girls on our backs," Espinosa said.

Sept. 11 was a day of horror and of heroes. And as more stories come to light, it also seemed to be a day of guardian angels - strangers appearing from clouds of dust at just the right time to save a life. Their "angel" was named Mark, "just some young guy" who, to this day, all four want to find and thank. Mark appeared from nowhere. He held each girl as her para scrambled over the wall. Mark was able to lower Becky, who was aided by her leg braces. But Stephanie had to be tossed.

"Julia caught her like a ball," Espinosa recalled, the four of them now reunited in their school's temporary home at the High School of Fashion Industries. Stephanie also has been reunited with her expensive wheelchair. Mark ran back and got it for her.

'We're family'

Becky and Stephanie, smart, pretty, 16-year-olds in 11th grade, have been best friends since fourth grade at PS 33 in Chelsea, studying together, tooling around together in their wheelchairs, sharing secrets. They now live within a few blocks of one another in Midtown Manhattan. Both teen-agers still call Espinosa and Martinez, "Mommy," just as they did in their freshman year. "We're family," said Becky.

Their "guardian angel" paras feel the same way.

- Ellie Spielberg