Milton High School to mark 25 years since 9/11 with forensic dentist as keynote speaker

Milton High School will mark 25 years since the Sept. 11 attacks at 10 a.m. Friday with a speaker who identified victims at Ground Zero.

Dr. Stewart Gordon, a forensic dentist who served with the World Trade Center Mortality Identification Unit, will deliver the keynote address at the school, 13025 Birmingham Highway. Gordon helped identify victims in the weeks after the 2001 attacks in New York City, at the Pentagon and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Flight 93 crashed, according to Appen Media.

He has served as a guide, or docent, at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in lower Manhattan since 2014, according to the City of Milton.

The ceremony will take place between the school's front steps and the lawn where students and Milton firefighters plant 2,977 American flags each year. That is one for every life lost in the attacks. Each flag carries a tag with a victim's name, WSB-TV reported.

Mayor Peyton Jamison and members of the Milton fire and police departments are also scheduled to speak. Students will read the stories of individual victims, and the school's orchestra, chorus and band will perform.

Jamison said the 25th anniversary carries special meaning. He said the memories remain vivid for those who lived through that day, but for Milton High students, Sept. 11 is history. "That makes gatherings like this even more important," the mayor said. "We have a responsibility to remember the lives that were lost, honor the courage and service that followed, and make sure those stories are carried forward to the next generation."

The annual tradition has drawn attention beyond Milton. The 9/11 Memorial & Museum's Facebook page previously spotlighted the school's Field of Flags display, according to the city's recap of the 2024 ceremony.

Milton-area resident Steve Gillam, whose sons attended Milton High, told WSB-TV on Sept. 7 that the school's commitment resonates with neighbors. Gillam said the attacks happened far from Milton and the Atlanta area but called it "great that the school has rallied around this event."

The campus opened in 2005.

Friday's incoming freshmen were born 11 years after the attacks. The ceremony is open to all community members. Milton is one of at least 10 Georgia communities holding 25th-anniversary commemorations on Sept. 11, according to Patch.

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