More than two decades after surviving a school shooting herself, an Oregon mother was forced to guide her son through the same terrifying experience when a gunman attacked an elementary school Thursday, according to reports.
Michelle, who has not publicly shared her last name, sent a series of frantic text messages to her son, reassuring him that he and his brother would make it through the violence while repeatedly writing, “I love you so much.”
“I was just in shock. I was like, how can this happen? How can lightning strike twice?” Michelle told CNN.
“How can I go through this and then my children go through this?”
Her fifth-grade son called her from his Apple Watch at 1 p.m. Thursday, one minute after authorities received a report that teen gunman Griffin J. John II had fired his first shot outside Silver Rail Elementary School.
“Mom, there’s a shooter,” the boy said. He confirmed the danger moments later in a text, initially typing “shroterr” before sending a second message: “shooter at school.”
“Baby I love you don’t call anyone please be as quiet as possible,” Michelle replied.
“If you can safely, text me, that’s OK just don’t make any calls. The police are going to help you. I love you so much. Do you know anything that’s going on?” she asked.
About an hour later, Michelle checked in again, asking her son what was happening and continuing to reassure him with the words, “I love you so much.”
“Everything is going to be okay. This happened to me too, and I am okay,” she wrote. Michelle told CNN it was the first time she had ever shared the details of her own shooting trauma with her children.
“I love you so much. It’s going to be okay,” Michelle continued.
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“They will load you on the bus and it will be kind of slow but we will get to you, I promise.”
Michelle was a freshman at Granite Hills High School in El Cajon, California, when senior Jason Anthony Hoffman opened fire during an attack in March 2001.
The shooting wounded three students and two teachers. No one was killed.
Michelle said the experience has continued to affect her, leaving her with panic attacks and a constant habit of identifying the nearest exit whenever she enters a public place.
She also said she felt a persistent sense of dread each day her sons went to school.
“Every single time I dropped them off, and I would see them walk in the front doors, I would get a pit in my stomach thinking, ‘I hope I see him again,’” she told CNN through tears.
“It’s probably because of the trauma I went through.”
Michelle’s sons survived Thursday’s attack, but four other people were killed.
The victims were three students — 5-year-old Rhoam Summer, an 8-year-old and an 11-year-old — along with 25-year-old teacher Megan Lambert.
A hero teacher managed to wrestle John, 16, to the floor in the midst of his rampage until a student’s brave father, Kaylub Giamanco, stormed into the classroom and fatally shot the gunman.
Investigators are still probing a motive for John’s massacre, but law-enforcement sources say he went to extreme lengths to carry out the bloodshed.
John’s weapon had been legally purchased by his mother around the time of his August birthday, sources said.