9/11 memorial plundered

Students and teachers at Leckie Elementary School in Southeast reacted with disbelief yesterday when they learned that somebody had stolen part of their memorial to a student, teacher and parents killed in the September 11 terror attacks.

Two benches were taken from the garden memorial in front of the school, at 4200 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., during spring break that ended Monday, the Metropolitan Police Department said.

“Whoever it is, they have no conscience,” school Principal Clementine Homesley said.

A business manager and maintenance workers leaving the school late Friday night noticed that two benches were missing and immediately called the police, but Mrs. Homesley said officers never arrived.

Officer Junis Fletcher, a police department spokesman, said yesterday he was unaware of a report made Friday night and pointed out that school was not in session last week. He also said the theft could have occurred as early as April 5, when spring break started.

Students helped design and create the garden to remember 11-year-old student Bernard Curtis Brown II and sixth-grade teacher Hilda Taylor, who were on American Airlines Flight 77 when it crashed into the Pentagon, and parents Marsha D. Ratchford and Johnnie Doctor Jr., Navy information specialists working in the Pentagon.

Mrs. Taylor was accompanying Bernard on a trip to California that he won in a National Geographic Society essay contest.

A group of 40 architects from the Washington Architectural Foundation donated their time and expertise to help students create the memorial, a cement walkway lined with children’s handprints that winds through three separate gardens. The memorial was dedicated September 11, 2003, exactly two years after terrorists used four hijacked planes to kill nearly 3,000 people.

The largest part of the walkway has a heart design to honor Mrs. Taylor’s love for children. Bernard’s section has a basketball imprint, and the area honoring the parents has an official Navy seal.

Two of the four benches — one for a parent and one for Mrs. Taylor — were stolen. The remaining two were removed for safekeeping.

Mrs. Homesley compared the thefts to a desecration.

“It’s like someone going to your parents’ or grandparents’ grave and moving the headstone,” she said. “It’s like each person’s grave site. We didn’t get to see their bodies, so this is a form of their graves right here at this school.”

Architect Mary Fitch said the foundation can replace the benches if they are not returned.

Mrs. Homesley plans to have the benches set in cement to deter further thefts.

“Some people just have no compassion; nothing really bothers them,” she said. “If they want something, they’re going to find a way to get it, regardless of what it means to anybody.”

• This article is based in part on wire service reports.