WASHINGTON -- Teenager Clara Jeffery says she 'used to think there was more hope' of surviving a nuclear war.
But a viewing of 'The Day After,' the television movie depicting a nuclear attack on the Kansas City, Mo., area, stirred up new doubts for Clara and some of her classmates at the Sidwell Friends School.
The movie dominated classroom discussions, hallway conversations and a special meeting Monday morning at the school, a private day school run by the pacifist Quakers in an affluent section of Washington.
'It's sort of futile to even talk about it (the aftermath of nuclear war), but we should try to do something before it gets to that,' said Clara, a 16-year-old student from nearby Arlington, Va.
'I'm not convinced there'll be a war,' she said, but added she worries about the 'mistrust' in Washington-Moscow relations.
'I used to think there was more hope,' she said.
In a hallway discussion between classes, Nora Maccoby, 16, of Washington, said she considers nuclear war a possibility.
'I expect to see it,' she said. 'I expect it in my lifetime.'
Other students, including 15-year-old Eugene Hahn of McLean, Va., said the movie 'didn't tell me anything I didn't know.'
But for people who had not thought much about the problems that would follow a nuclear war, he said, 'Maybe this clarified what really would happen.'
In that case, he added, 'It did teach a valuable lesson.'
Chemistry teacher Rob Lyon told a classhis overriding impression after watching the movie was 'that those people were back in the Stone Age.'
Several classmates agreed with a suggestion by John Glick, 16, of Washington, on how the United States should respond to a major Soviet nuclear attack.
'If they launch their missles at us, I seriously hope we don't launch ours at them,' he said. 'I hope someone has a chance.'
'What's the point of killing more people? Millions of people rotting away and dying slowly -- what's the point?' he asked.
