A Bend Mother Who Survived a 2001 School Shooting Guided Her Son by Text as He Hid from the Gunman

BEND — A mother who survived a 2001 school shooting found herself consoling her son by text after gunfire erupted at his Oregon elementary school on Thursday, CNN reported on October 17.

Michelle's fifth-grade son contacted her at around 1 p.m. local time using his Apple Watch. He told her there was a shooter at school, before sending a text confirming the danger. As she tried to comfort him, she drew on an experience she had never previously shared with her children. "Everything is going to be okay. This happened to me too, and I am okay," she texted her son. Screenshots of the exchange obtained by CNN show Michelle replying: "Baby I love you don't call anyone please be as quiet as possible." "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," she wrote. Her son also told her that his brother was safe.

Michelle was a freshman at Granite Hills High School in El Cajon, California, when senior Jason Anthony Hoffman opened fire in a March 2001 attack. He wounded three students and two teachers, but no one was killed. Michelle said she has continued to live with the trauma of the shooting — she suffers from panic attacks and always finds herself looking for the nearest exit in public spaces. "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." "I was just in shock. I was like, how can this happen? How can lightning strike twice? How can I go through this and then my children go through this?" she said. Thursday marked the first time Michelle had told her two sons that she, too, had survived a school shooting.

Michelle's sons survived Thursday's shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, while four others were killed: three students — 5-year-old Rhoam Summer, an 8-year-old, and an 11-year-old — and teacher Megan Lambert, 25. As police previously announced, the 16-year-old gunman, Griffin John II, was wrestled to the floor by a teacher in the midst of his rampage until a student's father, Kaylub Giamanco, stormed into the classroom and fatally shot him. Investigators are still probing a motive for the shooting. (GSM, from CNN reporting)

Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)

Photo: 图：俄勒冈州本德市中心资料照片（远处为派勒特山丘）。照片：UpdateNerd，Wikimedia Commons，CC0。Photo: downtown Bend, Oregon, with Pilot Butte in the distance (file photo). Photo by UpdateNerd via Wikimedia Commons, CC0.

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