A mother who survived a school shooting more than 20 years ago faced a harrowing ordeal once again when a gunman opened fire at an elementary school in Oregon on Thursday. Michelle, who declined to share her last name, provided emotional support to her son through text messages as he endured the chaotic and deadly event.

The incident unfolded at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend shortly after 1 p.m., when 15-year-old Griffin J. John II began firing outside the school. Michelle’s fifth-grade son contacted her via his Apple Watch almost immediately, alerting her to the presence of a shooter inside the building.

“Mom, there’s a shooter,” he told her, a message that was later confirmed through text. Michelle responded with calm reassurances, urging her son to remain quiet and avoid phone calls while encouraging him to text if it was safe to do so. Throughout the hour-long ordeal, she repeatedly expressed her love and reassured him that law enforcement would assist.

In a series of messages, Michelle revealed to her son for the first time the trauma she herself experienced during a shooting at Granite Hills High School in El Cajon, California, in 2001. As a freshman, she survived a shooting carried out by a senior student, Jason Anthony Hoffman, which injured five people but did not result in fatalities. Michelle said she continues to grapple with panic attacks and persistent anxiety related to that event, including a heightened wariness when dropping her children off at 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 said.

Tragically, the shooting at Silver Rail Elementary resulted in four deaths, including three students aged 5, 8, and 11, and a 25-year-old teacher, Megan Lambert. Michelle’s sons survived the attack.

The incident has once again highlighted the enduring impact of school shootings on survivors and their families, underscoring the profound psychological toll these events can inflict across generations.