Compiled by Kira Ratan, Sophia Van Beek, Lily Zuckerman
"I wasn't surprised, but I was disappointed. At a certain point, it all just gets tiring. There are endless debates going on around, yet people still refuse to look at why these people even felt 'comfortable' storming in at all. It's not impossible to disperse protests peacefully. In the end, it comes down to the color of your skin."
Mali Black '22
Waldorf, Maryland
New junior Eli West is a Washington D.C. native and recalls seeing the attacks on the Capitol unfold as he walked through his hometown. His school shut down for the entire week of the riots.
"For us, national news was very much local news. People live here, it isn't just monuments and museums. I remember seeing walls everywhere and armed guards down every street. It was so close, and it was scary. And it didn't go away overnight; we're still seeing the effects of it, today, too."
Eli West '23
Washington, D.C.
Department of Performing Arts faculty member Curt Ebersole was teaching a class when the events at the Capitol unfolded. He turned on the news and watched the insurrection with his students.
"My first thought was 'what do I do as a teacher? What can I do to both protect the students and also give them the opportunity experience something which I recognized as being a historical event?' I think it's a reminder that for all of us, it ought to serve as a reminder that democracy is an experiment, and it is up to us to participate in democracy to the best of our ability to ensure that the experiment continues successfully."
Performing Arts Teacher Curt Ebersole
White Plains, New York
"I'm a huge advocate of protecting free speech in the public sphere. I'm a huge advocate of protecting the rights of people to demonstrate and to be activists. That is essential to me to American democracy. But I was trying to balance in my head these beliefs that I hold very, very firmly with the absolute horror of what I was seeing... What I had a problem with is they were physically attacking the democratic process and they were physically attacking individuals."
Dean of Global Studies Robert Fish
Dobbs Ferry, New York
"I remember being in math class, and just absent-mindedly opening my phone to check social media and stumbling upon live footage of someone shattering one of the windows of the Capitol. I think I understood pretty soon and that I was watching something historic."
Clara Kolker '22
Irvington, New York
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