When Silverstein and her colleagues went to the schools to draw
and talk with the kids, the drawings offered important clues to
specific worries and concerns. Hispanic children, Silverstein
found, drew more pictures of people jumping out of buildings
than their non-Hispanic classmates. Later, she learned from a
Hispanic colleague that while English-speaking stations in Los
Angeles stopped showing footage of people jumping from the World
Trade Center towers early in their TV coverage, Spanish-language
channels aired it for much longer periods. Some children from
other countries were concerned that they would be discriminated
against as terrorists themselves. Others who had come to the
United States to escape war and persecution in their homelands
suddenly found themselves experiencing similar fears in their
new country. Silverstein and other experts said that students
already under stress before September 11 from other problems,
such as emotional difficulties or strained family relationships,
were particularly