Krystal Davis, then a second-grade student in Sarasota, Florida, recalls the confusion that swept through her classroom on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. A suited man leaned down and whispered into the ear of the president of the United States, who was seated just feet away from the children.

President George W. Bush was visiting Emma E. Booker Elementary School, listening as students in Mrs. Sandra Daniels’ second-grade class demonstrated their reading skills. The admiration on his face abruptly shifted to concern.

His chief of staff, Andrew Card, had just informed Bush that a second plane had struck the World Trade Center in New York City. “America is under attack,” Card later recalled whispering to the president.

9/11 Tribute in Light: Live from Lower Manhattan,” a one-hour ABC News multiplatform live special, premieres Friday, Sept. 11, at 8 p.m. EDT across ABC, Disney+, Hulu, National Geographic, ABC Owned Television Stations livestreams and ABC News Live.

“You could see the shift with [the president] once he got the message, and then you could see it on his face,” Davis told ABC News in an interview marking 25 years since the 9/11 attacks. “And then the shift of him going back to his normal self and smiling like, ‘I don’t want to alarm the kids.’”

Daniels told Sarasota ABC affiliate WWSB in an interview published Tuesday that she “immediately knew something was wrong.”

“His entire demeanor changed,” she said, referring to Bush.

Davis said the students grew concerned when Bush was escorted from the classroom after the reading lesson ended.

“And we’re just like, ‘OK, in the middle of reading, what happened? What did we do? Like, did we do something wrong? Did he not like us reading or whatever?’” Davis recalled.

Davis and her classmates did not yet understand what was unfolding, but they had witnessed a defining moment in American history from the front row.

Meanwhile, 10-year-old Stevenson Tose’-Rigell, son of principal Gwendolyn Tose’-Rigell, was in the school’s library eagerly awaiting the president’s arrival, where Bush was slated to deliver a speech on his signature education policy, the No Child Left Behind Act.

“I’d probably say it was a couple of hours at least we were out there on the podium waiting around. We didn’t know what was going on at the time,” he said.

He continued, “They were trying to entertain us a little bit and, you know, keep, everybody feeling kind of excited … but we’re waiting around for hours, you know, it’s like, ‘Man, this is this a long time waiting around for someone.'”

Tose’-Rigell said Bush did eventually enter the room, but the 10-year-old quickly realized the speech Bush was delivering would not touch on education policy. Instead, Bush delivered an address to the nation, confirming reports of “an apparent terrorist attack on our country.”

“We’re pretty much [thinking], ‘Sounds like we’re under attack,'” Tose’-Rigell recalled. “So yeah, it was definitely far off from the script.”

Back in Daniels’ classroom, Davis said the children were moved into another room, where a teacher tried to explain what was going on.

Tose’-Rigell said he was not able to leave school right away, as his mother was the school’s principal. Instead, he said he watched the devastation unfold on a small TV in the school’s front office.

From Sarasota, Bush boarded Air Force One, departing Florida for military bases in Louisiana and Nebraska before arriving back in Washington, D.C., that night.

By day’s end, nearly 3,000 people had died in terror attacks at the World Trade Center in New York City; the Pentagon building in Arlington, Virginia; and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the crash site of United Airlines Flight 93.

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A quarter century later, as the country continues to grapple with the ramifications of that day, so too do the alumni of Emma E. Booker Elementary who were at the school the day of the attacks.

In May, the school commemorated the 25th anniversary of 9/11 by welcoming a steel beam from the World Trade Center, brought by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which allows the public to “put their hand on that steel and feel the loss and sacrifice that was made that day.”

Stephen Siller Jr., whose father Stephen Siller was one of the 343 New York City Fire Department members killed on 9/11, said bringing the steel beam to Emma E. Booker Elementary was one of the most impactful visits he’s made with the foundation’s Steel Across America campaign, out of dozens of similar trips.

“Little kids … understand that, you know, this is a sacred piece of history,” he said. “…It once held up the Twin Towers, it once held floors and walls, and now it holds the gravity of that day.”

In a statement to ABC News, Sarasota County Schools Superintendent Terry Connor reflected on the impact 9/11 had on the district.

“For Sarasota County Schools, the legacy of Sept. 11 carries a uniquely personal connection,” the statement read in part.

It added, “On this 25th anniversary, we honor those who were lost, remember those who answered the call, and express our gratitude to all who continue to serve our communities and our country.”

Speaking with ABC News, the former students of Emma E. Booker Elementary reflected on their intersection with history, recognizing the grave impact on those directly affected by the tragedy while also considering the mark it left on their own lives.

“You realize, ‘People really lost they live[s] yesterday,'” Davis said, recounting the days following 9/11. “And we were right in the midst of everything. [The president] was right here in Sarasota, Florida, [when it happened].”

Davis, who currently works in healthcare but said she aspires to be a police officer, said the events that day inspired her to pursue a career serving others.

“As a second grader, I couldn’t really explain,” Davis said, adding that she would later realize her experience left her “wanting to do more for my community, wanting to do more for myself and my kids.”

“That day is going to always be something I never forget,” she added.

Tose’-Rigell said he also carries complex feelings surrounding his memory of that day, including sadness and a sense of pride.

His mother, the school’s former principal, died in 2007 after a battle with cancer.

“I always knew my mom was a rock star, you know? In my mind, you know, she was my superhero,” Tose’-Rigell said, describing seeing his mother on the world stage on Sept. 11, 2001, and the “national recognition” she received.

He added that seeing her in archival footage from that day brought back memories of her each year on the anniversary of 9/11.

“It feels like she comes back,” he said. “You know, like, once a year, [she] reincarnates right onscreen again.”

CBS Mornings anchor Gayle King was briefly left without words after Lindsay Clancy juror Paula Devlin disclosed that the lone juror favoring a conviction was a Black man.

Devlin, 65, appeared on King’s Friday morning program to discuss the Lindsay Clancy trial, which ended in a mistrial when the jury remained split 11-1.

The detail about the holdout emerged as King questioned Devlin about the ages and racial makeup of the 12-person jury, which included nine women and three men.

According to Devlin, the jurors ranged in age from 22 to 70. All but one were white, and many were parents.

King focused on the panel’s racial demographics, asking: ‘One person of color. Was the person of color a woman or a man?’

‘A man,’ Devlin replied. King repeated, ‘A man,’ before following up: ‘Was the holdout juror a Black man?’

‘Yes,’ Devlin said. Appearing taken aback, King asked again: ‘A Black man is the holdout juror?’

When Devlin again answered yes, King gasped and looked down before quietly saying: ‘Whoa. I have to sit with that for just a second.’

Devlin suspects the holdout juror, who has not been publicly identified, was in his 30s, she told King. 

She added that after watching a video of an interview with Clancy, the holdout ‘realized that it wasn’t murder in the first degree.’ 

She said the other jurors ‘saw his doubt.’ 

Devlin, who works for a government contractor, previously told the Daily Mail that the holdout juror made ‘no sense’ when pressed on his reasons for his vote and was ‘quiet’ for most of the week-long deliberations.

During deliberations, he was more focused on policing the tenor of the group’s discussions than offering explanations for his conviction that Clancy was guilty, she said.

‘The main thing he focused on is sometimes we would all want to talk at once, and that was very upsetting to him.

‘He would get upset and say, ”Listen to what she’s saying, listen to what he’s saying, be respectful’.”

‘We were trying to say to him, that sometimes somebody says something and they get lost in their thought or they can’t find the right word, and somebody else puts that word in there for them or finishes their thought, that’s how normal conversation works.

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‘But when that would happen, he would get upset and just take all this time lecturing us about not being respectful.’

Devlin also claimed the holdout was a married man and rarely fraternized with the group during the trial, instead preferring to speak to his wife or watch videos on his phone.

On January 24, 2023, Clancy’s now ex-husband Patrick, 36, a software sales employee for Microsoft, had gone out at her request to pick up their kids’ medicine and takeout for the family.

He returned less than an hour later at around 6pm and went upstairs to find his wife.

But when he got upstairs, he found their second-floor bedroom door locked.

After forcing his way in, he discovered blood on the floor, a bloody knife on the nightstand and a wide-open window.

He ran downstairs to find Clancy on the ground outside, with her wrists and neck cut. She told him she’d tried to kill herself and revealed that their children were in the basement.

Her suicide attempt failed but left Clancy paralyzed and permanently confined to a wheelchair.

Jurors spent more than 37 hours deliberating five-and-a-half weeks of highly complex and distressing evidence.

But judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial at Plymouth Superior Court last Friday afternoon after the holdout refused to side with the other 11 twice, late Thursday and early Friday.

Devlin said the 11 jurors who decided Clancy was not guilty of murder or manslaughter in the deaths of her kids felt ‘defeat’ and ‘anger’ when the mistrial was declared.

She told the Daily Mail: ‘I don’t want to bash anybody, even that person.

‘They did whatever they did for their reasons, and we will never know, and we will never understand.

‘That’s what hurts so much.’

Former national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said she feels “deep personal remorse” over the failure to do more to prevent the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Speaking at a Pentagon memorial ceremony, Rice said officials in positions of power did not recognize the threat clearly enough or soon enough to stop the 9/11 attacks.

“We did what we knew to do, but by definition, it was not enough,” she said.

Rice, who was serving as national security adviser at the time, directly apologized to relatives of victims attending the ceremony.

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“I will always carry deep personal remorse for the pain that you, the families of the fallen, still feel, and for the trauma that our country endured,” she said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.