Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Slain Parkland teachers honored at stair climb
‘100 percent they were first responders that day’
NEW YORK — Families of three Stoneman Douglas educators killed on Valentine’s Day gathered at the base of One World Trade Center just past 4:30 a.m. Sunday, groggy and wearing orange T-shirts that read “Guest” on the backs. Linda Beigel Schulman hugged Debbi Hixon. Melissa Feis clutched the hand of her 8-year-old daughter, Ariel.
The two widows and mother served as honorary starters of the annual Tunnel to Towers Stair Climb, an event that pays tribute to firefighters and other emergency responders killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The Stoneman Douglas families held aloft a ribbon that
stretched the width of the hallway outside a stairwell before the 5 a.m. start, as TV crews and photographers crowded around.
“Smile! Everybody look happy!” a race official shouted.
It has been more than 16 years since the tragedy of 9-11, which killed nearly 3,000 at the Twin Towers. It has been less than 16 weeks since the Feb. 14 shooting killed 17 at the Parkland school.
“Our mission is to help first responders — 100 percent they were first responders that day,” said Frank Siller, CEO of the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation. “They ran toward danger.”
Frank Siller’s brother Stephen, a New York City firefighter, died on Sept. 11 in the tower collapse after he ran in full gear through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to reach the burning buildings.
“All three of the adults killed at Stoneman Douglas died doing acts of bravery,” Debbi Hixon said. “Chris died on the first floor. He ran right into the building. He ran right at [the shooter], and I’ve been told he might have been trying to tackle him.”
Chris Hixon, the school’s athletic director, was 49. Scott Beigel, 35, a geography teacher, was shot when he unlocked and opened the door to his third-floor classroom to let in students trapped in the hallway. Aaron Feis, 37, an assistant football coach, died on the first floor as he shielded students from bullets, witnesses said.
Siller’s sister Mary SillerScullin said, “We’re about honoring people who do the right thing. We couldn’t be more proud to have these families here.”
Just after the start of the tower climb, the families took a 47-second elevator ride to the 102nd floor, where they waited to greet finishing climbers. They marveled at the predawn views at 1,268 feet in the One World Observatory. “Do you want to see the Empire State Building?” a staff guide asked Ariel Feiss.
Ariel, who turns 9 this month, squealed in delight and summoned her mom and aunt, Johanna Mahaffey, when she saw the first rays of sun creep over the eastern horizon at 5:25 a.m.
“That’s awesome,” Debbi Hixon said as she snapped photos on her cellphone.
Linda Beigel Schulman, who lives in Long Island, leaned over to Corey Hixon, 22, Debbi and Chris’ son, and said, “If my son was still here, he’d be climbing the stairs. He was a runner.”
Beigel Schulman and her husband, Michael, then left to catch a flight at JFK International Airport. They were headed to the 2 p.m. Stoneman Douglas graduation ceremony in Sunrise.
“I wish we could stick around but my priority is those kids,” Beigel Schulman said. “Scott would have been there so we want to represent him.”
Debbi Hixon cheered when three family members finished the climb: her son Tom, 26, a U.S. Marine who flew in from Hawaii; Chris’ sister Natalie Hixon, 45, a Navy veteran and junior high physical education teacher from Michigan; and his brother Rick Hixon, 48, who lives in Virginia.
When the Hixons finished the climb, they held up a banner that read “Hixon strong,” with insignias of Stoneman Douglas High and Pleasant Valey High, Chris Hixon’s alma mater in Pennsylvania.
Debbi Hixon got emotional when greeted by another South Floridian who finished the climb: Janet Roy, of Pompano Beach, the sister of the late New York Fire Department Capt. Billy Burke. Burke’s actions on Sept. 11 inspired the stair climb. He died while carrying a quadriplegic trying to evacuate the north tower, sending the rest of his crew to safety after the south tower collapsed.
Roy has done the stair climb every year since the first in 2015, after the new One World Trade Center opened.
On Sunday, Roy hugged Debbi Hixon and said, “We share a common loss — having family members who sacrificed themselves for others. It’s a special thing that few people understand.”
“I was thinking of my father the whole way up,” Tom Hixon said. His dad also served in the military — a Navy vet who went to Iraq during the first Gulf War in 1991. Tom Hixon also thought of the firefighters and other rescuers who died on Sept. 11, many of whom climbed dozens of floors in full gear, surrounded by smoke and intense heat. Sunday’s climb spanned 2,226 steps and 104 floors, beginning two floors below ground level.
As Tom Hixon climbed the tower on Sunday, he thought back to the voicemail message he left on his father’s cellular phone when his mother told him about the shooting.
“I said, ‘I know what you’re doing. I know what’s going on. Stay safe,’ ” Tom Hixon said. “I knew he’d be in it.”
In March, the Siller Foundation gave the Hixon and Feis families $50,000 each. “Because the two coaches were married and left behind wives and children,” explained John Hodge, Siller Foundation chief operating officer. “These teachers acted just like first responders, but they don’t get a death benefit for being killed in the line of duty.”
Hodge said a share of proceeds from the stair climb will go toward a camp scholarship fund Linda Beigel Schulman has created in her son’s memory. Scott Beigel, who was single and did not have children, spent every summer as a camp counselor, and the fund will send needy children to camps.
On Sunday, the Hixons recalled vacationing in New York the month before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. In one family photo, Tom said the Twin Towers appeared in the background when Debbi’s hair was blown by a gust of wind on Liberty Island.
“The first year that they had the stair climb,” Debbi said, “we saw it on the news and said to each other, ‘That looks awesome. We’re going to do that some day.’ ”