MONTICELLO — When 10-year-old Kallie Rose Boyd wanted to gooutside and play this week, she told her mother, “Mommy, if I see aplane, I’ll come inside real quick.”

Boyd, granddaughter of Tom and Lori Getz of Brookhaven, is anexample of the confusion some younger children and even teenagersmay be feeling about Tuesday’s horrific terrorist attack on theWorld Trade Center and Pentagon, according to a schoolcounselor.

Faced with 24-hour news coverage on the television and radionetworks, and overwhelmed with comments from adults around them,children cannot help but be influenced and learn about Tuesday’sevents. What they see and hear, however, may have a lasting effecton their lives.

“I think parents need to talk to their children and explain itto them,” said Patsy Sandifer, school counselor at Lawrence CountyHigh School. “There are some graphic things being shown they don’tneed to see, especially if they’re small children.”

Sandifer said there are usually two extremes parents take indealing with catastrophes.

They either tend to completely shelter the child or they ensurethe child is completely aware of the events by allowing them fullaccess to the media coverage. Neither extreme is probably best forthe child, Sandifer said.

“I imagine the best way lies somewhere in the middle,” Sandifersaid.

Sandifer said children need to see the images of the destroyedbuildings to understand the tragedy, but images of body parts beingremoved from the wreckage and the bloody carnage of the attackshould be withheld.

Regardless of the age of their child, Sandifer said, parentsshould sit down and discuss Tuesday’s events and the aftermath withthem. They should address the child’s feelings toward whathappened, whether they be fear, shock, anger or a combinationthereof, and guide them through the process of dealing with thoseemotions.

They should also discuss future possibilities with them andensure they are prepared for the changes in American lifestylessure to result from this tragedy.

“This is going to affect our day-to-day living and it’s going toaffect their day-to-day living and they need to understand that,”Sandifer said.

The counselor said she has discussed the catastrophe withseveral of the students and they have been “very interested.”

The initial response among most of the high school studentsTuesday, she said, was that “we need to pray – pray for thevictims, the terrorists and everyone in between.”

She said discussions among teenagers would obviously be verydifferent from those with younger children. Teenagers have a betterunderstanding of Tuesday’s events and the scope of the tragedy.

“Teenagers are risk-takers,” Sandifer said. “Some teenagers’immediate response is to attack, but that’s very few. They are alsovery realistic about what has taken place. They know people inother states have been hurt and killed.”

Lawrence County High School did not shut down Tuesday, butPrincipal L.C. Firle did announce the disaster shortly after itoccurred and teachers halted classes and turned on televisionsets.

“He told us to turn on our TVs and something about a crisis inNew York,” said senior Shellie Wilson. “I didn’t really know whatwas going on until we started watching the news.”

“We watched it all day,” said senior Amanda Givens. “They werereally trying to explain it to us.”

The decision was left up to the teacher’s discretion. In someclasses, the television was shortly turned off.

According to sophomore Allie Williamson, her class watched thenews for about a half hour and returned to their studies.

“I felt like the teachers should have explained it more,”Williamson said. “I was really scared when it all happened.”

Wilson said her immediate reaction to the news was ofconfusion.

“All I kept thinking of was: Does this mean war? Should we bescared? What’s going to happen next?”

Sorrow for the victim’s was also “mixed in there somewhere,” shesaid.

Mixed in with Givens’ sorrow was anger.

“I was mad that someone would do that to us and hurt innocentpeople,” she said.

There was some disagreement on the course the nation should takenow. The seniors said America should determine who was behind theact and “punish them in the worst possible way,” but Williamson hadother ideas.

“I think we should be more concerned with our people’sprotection than punishing right now,” she said. “We don’t want thisto happen again.”

The emotions of the teenagers reflect those of a cross-sectionof Americans everywhere – astonishment, uncertainty,well-restrained fear and a desire to punish those responsible.

“I never thought that I would be involved in something that willbe in the history books 20 years from now,” Williamson said. “Inever thought anything like this would happen in my lifetime.”