Sarasota principal defends Bush from "Fahrenheit 9/11" portrayal

Michael Moore's film "Fahrenheit 9/11" criticizes President Bush for listening to Sarasota second-graders read a story for nearly seven minutes after learning the nation was under attack on Sept. 11, 2001.

But Gwendolyn Tose'-Rigell, the principal at Emma E. Booker Elementary School, says Bush handled himself properly.

"I don't think anyone could have handled it better," Tose'-Rigell told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in a story published Wednesday. "What would it have served if he had jumped out of his chair and ran out of the room?"

"Fahrenheit 9/11," which won the top honor at last month's Cannes Film Festival, portrays the White House as asleep at the wheel before the Sept. 11 attacks. Moore accuses Bush of fanning fears of future terrorism to win public support for the Iraq war.

Bush told the federal 9/11 Commission, which released its report last week, that he remained in the classroom because he felt it was "important to project strength and calm until he could better understand what was happening." Moore says Bush failed to take charge.

Tose'-Rigell, who was at Bush's side, did not hear what White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card whispered when he squeezed past her to tell the president of the attacks, but "I knew it was something serious."

"The president bit his lip and clenched his jaw," she said. "I didn't know what happened, whether it was something with his wife or children or something with the nation. I remember praying that God would watch over our school and protect our children."

She said the video doesn't convey all that was going on in the classroom, but Bush's presence had a calming effect and "helped us get through a very difficult day."

Tose'-Rigell said she plans to publish her account of the morning of Sept. 11 from pages she wrote in her journal following the attack. The principal said she didn't vote for Bush. "But that day I would have voted for him."

What would you and Moore have had Bush do, run from the room screaming "To war! To war!"? That would've been productive.

At the time of the first impact, it wasn't widely known to be a terrorist attack. I remember hearing the first report that a "twin engined airplane" had struck one of the WTC towers. Being someone who has studied aviation history for over 30 years, I immediately thought it could've been a repeat of the incident in 1945 where a B-25 bomber collided with the Empire State Building. A "twin-engined" airplane could be anything from a Piper Seminole to a Boeing 777, so the description was somewhat lacking. Even when I got to work and saw pictures of the tower burning against a clear blue sky, it didn't completely rule out an accident because a pilot could've had a heart attack or lost control. It was the second impact that clinched what was happening.