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TV Brought the Trauma to Classroom Millions

It was the classroom lesson no one had anticipated.

Across the country, students and teachers who had gathered to share the excitement of the launch instead experienced the immediacy of death, brought home with horrifying impact by television.

Some 2.5-million students nationwide were viewing Challenger’s takeoff via satellite dishes hooked up to their schools. Others were watching the live broadcast on cable. And by afternoon, countless millions more schoolchildren were sitting in classrooms listening to radios or watching continuous replays of the event on...