'Don't make calls': Mother who survived 2001 school shooting guides son through Oregon massacre
BEND, OREGON: A mother who survived a school shooting as a teenager found herself helping her own children cope with a similar emergency more than two decades later, after a gunman opened fire at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday, October 15.
Michelle, who asked CNN to withhold her surname for privacy, said both her sons survived the attack.
The experience brought back memories of the shooting she lived through as a high school freshman in California in 2001, a trauma that, she said, continued to affect her sense of safety long after the incident.
Mom recalls guiding son through attack
Michelle’s fifth-grade son contacted her at around 1 pm 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.
Her son kept in touch with Michelle as she guided him to stay quiet and calm.
“Baby I love you, please be quiet and don't call anyone,” she wrote to her son.
Her own experience had taught her how deeply a school shooting could affect a young person, even after the immediate danger had passed.
This time, she was trying to reassure her child while facing the possibility that he could endure the same trauma.
Screenshots accessed by CNN show Michelle telling her son, “Everything is going to be okay, this happened to me and I'm okay,” as she reassured her little boy via text messages.
Michelle told CNN that after the 2001 shooting, she struggled to feel safe at Granite Hills High School or in public spaces.
She developed panic attacks and said she would habitually look for the nearest exit wherever she went. The anxiety also followed her into motherhood.
She said dropping her sons off at school often brought a wave of fear, even before Thursday’s attack.
“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 said through tears.
“It’s probably because of the trauma I went through.”
Silver Rail Elementary School nightmare
Bend, Oregon, was rocked by a deadly shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School that left three children and a teacher dead.
Another child and a second teacher were reported critically injured.
Investigators named 16-year-old John J Griffin II as the suspect.
He had previously attended the school’s special-education classroom.
Authorities are now trying to piece together what drove the teenager to carry out the attack and how he got hold of a shotgun that belonged to his mother.
Amid the chaos, Kaylub Giamanco, a 36-year-old father with two daughters enrolled at the school, reportedly confronted the armed teenager and shot him. The suspect was subsequently found dead.
The tragedy has also left the suspect’s family facing difficult questions. His mother has since issued an apology to the victims’ families and spoken about her shock over the events.
The investigation remains ongoing as authorities work to establish the sequence of events and the circumstances that led to the deadly shooting.
