BEND: A mother who survived a California school shooting in 2001 comforted her son by text during the Oregon school shooting on October 15. Both her sons survived.
The woman, identified only as Michelle, told CNN that her fifth-grade son called from his Apple Watch after gunfire began at Silver Rail Elementary School. She recognised the fear in his voice before he sent a text confirming that a shooter was inside.
Michelle urged him to avoid calling and to stay silent. In messages CNN obtained, she asked him to “please be as quiet as possible” and reassured him that police would help. Her son later confirmed that his brother was safe.
While she waited, Michelle told her children for the first time that she had survived a shooting herself. She had been a first-year student at Granite Hills High School in El Cajon, California, when a gunman wounded five people in 2001.
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Since that attack, she said, she had experienced panic attacks and feared for her children whenever she dropped them at school.
Meanwhile, Bend police said the Oregon gunman killed three children and a teacher and injured two others. Police identified the attacker as Griffin John II, 16, a former student.
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A parent, Kaylub Giamanco, followed him into the building and fatally shot him while a teacher struggled with him, according to police. Investigators had not established a motive.
A woman who survived a school shooting in 2001 comforted her son by text during the attack at Silver Rail Elementary.
