Mother who survived 2001 school shooting comforted son over text when Oregon gunman stormed classrooms: 'How can lightning strike twice?'

Read the original at Daily Mail ↗
Cite

Hutchison, J. (2026, October 17). Mother who survived 2001 school shooting comforted son over text when Oregon gunman stormed classrooms: 'How can lightning strike twice?'. Daily Mail. https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16217155/Mother-survived-school-shooting-Oregon.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

Daily Mail · collected 2026-10-17 · by Joe Hutchison

Quick Summary

A mother who survived a 2001 school shooting in California texted her son during an attack at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, this week. Michelle, whose identity is not fully disclosed, communicated with her fifth-grade son after he called from his Apple Watch to report the incident involving shooter Griffin John II, who killed three students and a teacher. The article focuses on how past trauma affects parents' reactions during such crises, highlighting Michelle's previous experience and resulting anxiety about school safety for her children.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-17, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

On October 15, Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon was placed under lockdown after reports of an active shooter. The Bend Police Department responded and found the shooter dead upon arrival; at least four people were killed, including three children, with one teacher among the deceased. Authorities received a call about a shot fired into a car outside the school at 12:59 PM local time (19:59 GMT), and police arrived within minutes. The shooter was found dead almost immediately after opening fire. At least two people were transported to a hospital, but their conditions remain unclear. The community of Bend mourned the loss, with the Bend-La Pine Schools district honoring slain teacher Megan Lambert and praising staff member Becky Drury for her courageous response during the attack.

Written for “Oregon Elementary School Shooting” on 2026-10-19, grounded in this article and the 100 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Oregon Elementary School Shooting
Crime & Law · 101 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 7% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
New York Post
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 20% hedged 2 of 10 📰 publisher trust 67
“The articles describe different moments related to the shooting: Article A covers the immediate aftermath and heroic intervention by a bystander, while Article B focuses on the emotional impact on a mother who survived a previous school shooting.”
BBC News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 4 📰 publisher trust 69
“Article A describes the unfolding of the shooting incident at Silver Rail Elementary School, while Article B focuses on a mother's experience from a previous school shooting and her reaction to this recent incident.”
Daily Mail
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 20% hedged 8 of 40 📰 publisher trust 64
“The articles describe different events involving the mother's experience with two separate school shootings, one in 2001 and another in 2026.”
New York Post
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 12% hedged 3 of 25 📰 publisher trust 67
“The articles describe different aspects of the same school shooting incident but focus on distinct elements (one on the shooter's actions, one on a mother comforting her son).”
CBS News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 3 📰 publisher trust 66
“The articles describe different events: one is about a current shooting incident at Silver Rail Elementary School, while the other describes a mother comforting her son over text after recalling her own experience from a school shooting in 2001.”
Daily Mail
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 8 📰 publisher trust 64
“Article A describes the shooting incident itself, while Article B discusses a mother's reaction to the shooting via text message based on her past experience.”
CBC News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 10% hedged 4 of 42 📰 publisher trust 60
“The articles describe different events involving school shootings, but Article B focuses on a mother's text message to her son during the recent Oregon shooting, while Article A reports on the identity of the person who stopped the shooter.”
Fox News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 14 📰 publisher trust 67
“Article A describes the incident where a hero dad neutralized a shooter, while Article B discusses a mother's reaction to her son's school being attacked, referencing both a current and past shooting.”
South China Morning Post
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 14% hedged 1 of 7 📰 publisher trust 64
“Article A describes the actual incident of a school shooting in Oregon, while Article B discusses a mother's reaction to her son being involved in the same shooting from her past experience.”
BBC News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 3% hedged 1 of 32 📰 publisher trust 69
“The articles describe different events: one is about a teacher and an armed bystander responding to a school shooting, while the other focuses on a mother's reaction to her son being affected by the same shooting incident via text messages.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
42
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
7%
3 of 42 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
64/100
Daily Mail's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
101
Crime & Law
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-17 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Daily Mail · 6186 article(s) · 15 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 15 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Joe Hutchison
22 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 McGuinty said authorities were still working to determine what happened and expected to provide further information.
🔮 India Miller, 27, and Sean Scott, 45, face murder charges after calling 911 last Tuesday to their Paulsboro home and claiming Maya Thomas, 9, had been struck by a vehicle.
🔮 Michelle's fifth-grader son managed to call her from his Apple Watch shortly after John started shooting inside the school, saying: 'Mom, there's a shooter.' She said that straight away she could tell by the tone of his voice that something was wrong, he texted her moments later saying: 'Shooter at school'.
🔮 Boulder County Sheriff's Office said in a statement said that search and rescue crews searched the area overnight for the plane but could not find it.
🔮 With his soft voice and penchant for outlandish, revealing outfits, it would be easy to mistake Chicago man Chevazz Campbell as a campy but harmless eccentric.
🔮 The DJ's girlfriend said that as she heard more about what allegedly happened, she began to worry about what might have happened to Jane Doe.
🔮 New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani sparked fresh anger amongst the city's Italian-American population after declining to attend the city's annual Columbus Day parade.
🔮 Health officials then put her in a taxi after telling Slice they would send her back to her home address, but the taxi went instead to a CVS Pharmacy.
🔮 Helaly believed that the Grodnicks spent a small fortune on new trees and maintaining the yard, saying that both David and Lora would work on it together. 'All of a sudden, I noticed that in recent months they were not focusing on the lawn.
Also by Joe Hutchison
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 22 articles by Joe Hutchison →

Topics

Bend CNN El Cajon Granite Hills High School Oregon

Subjects

John PERSON · 12× Bend GPE · 6× Giamanco PERSON · 4× Michelle PERSON · 4× Oregon ORG · 3× CNN ORG · 2× Griffin John II PERSON · 2× Meghan Lambert PERSON · 2× El Cajon GPE · 1× Granite Hills High School ORG · 1×

Narrative

Griffin John II, 16, who killed three children aged five, eight, and 11 at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday is pictured Meghan Lambert, 25, of Bend, was the teacher killed in the elementary school shooting in Oregon Once inside, Giamanco saw a teacher struggling with the shooter and opened fire, killing John instantly.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-17
🔮 Michelle's fifth-grader son managed to call her from his Apple Watch shortly after John started shooting inside the school, saying: 'Mom, there's a shooter.' She said that straight away she could tell by the tone of his voice that something was wrong, he texted her moments later saying: 'Shooter at school'.

Claims (42 extracted, 3 hedged)

A mother who survived a school shooting back in 2001 comforted her son over text after his school in Oregon was shot up earlier this week. asserted
school → survive → Oregon
The woman, known only as Michelle, managed to communicate with one of her sons after Griffin John II, 16, attacked Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend on Thursday. asserted
II → know → Thursday
She told CNN that as a freshman she was inside Granite Hills High School in El Cajon, California, when Jason Anthony Hoffman wounded five people in 2001. asserted
Hoffman → tell → 2001
I was like, how can this happen? How can lightning strike twice? asserted
lightning → happen → ?
How can I go through this and then my children go through this?', she said. asserted
she → go → this
Michelle's fifth-grader son managed to call her from his Apple Watch shortly after John started shooting inside the school, saying: 'Mom, there's a shooter.' She said that straight away she could tell by the tone of his voice that something was wrong, he texted her moments later saying: 'Shooter at school'. uncertain
he → manage → school
In screenshots of their texts obtained by CNN, she responded: 'Baby I love you don't call anyone please be as quiet as possible. ' asserted
I → obtain → anyone
If you can safely, text me, that's OK just don't make any calls. asserted
that → text → calls
The police are going to help you. asserted
police → go → you
I love you so much', the boy was also able to communicate that his brother was also safe. asserted
brother → love → you
Silver Lake Elementary in Bend is pictured on Friday afternoon in the wake of Thursday's shooting that killed three students and a teacher Michelle managed to communicate over text with one of her sons as the shooting happened Thursday was also the first time she had revealed to her two sons that she had survived a school shooting. asserted
she → picture → shooting
The events of 2001 still haunt her, she told the outlet, and she developed panic attacks as a result of it. asserted
she → haunt → it
Michelle added: '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". asserted
I → add → him
It’s probably because of the trauma I went through.' asserted
I → ’ → trauma
On Thursday, John killed three students, including five-year-old Rhoam Summer, and teacher Meghan Lambert, 25, before he was killed by Kaylub Giamanco. asserted
he → kill → Giamanco
John also injured Saylor Graham, seven, and educational assistant Becky Drury during his shooting spree. asserted
John → injure → spree
Police said John fired off 15 rounds before he was killed by Giamanco. asserted
he → say → Giamanco
He targeted the special needs classroom, where he was once a student. asserted
he → target → classroom
John used a gun his mother had purchased around his 16th birthday in August. asserted
mother → use → August
Law enforcement remained unsure as to how John obtained his ammunition, saying the investigation was 'very active.' asserted
investigation → remain → ammunition
Giamanco raced into the school after spotting John entering the building armed with a shotgun. asserted
John → race → shotgun
Griffin John II, 16, who killed three children aged five, eight, and 11 at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday is pictured Meghan Lambert, 25, of Bend, was the teacher killed in the elementary school shooting in Oregon Once inside, Giamanco saw a teacher struggling with the shooter and opened fire, killing John instantly. asserted
teacher → kill → John
The teacher later revealed she threw her cellphone at John to 'distract' him before grappling with him to try and wrestle away his weapon. asserted
she → reveal → weapon
Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz called Giamanco 'a true hero', adding: 'His quick-thinking to observe and then follow someone into the school is incredible and undoubtedly saved lives. ' asserted
thinking → call → lives
And that is something that came naturally as a protective father. asserted
that → come → father
The teacher who is willing to stand and fight for her children is incredible. asserted
who → stand → children
We all recognize that is true heroism and we don't see that a lot in society. asserted
we → recognize → society
John fired as many as 15 shots during the shooting and had 44 left when he was shot dead, according to police. uncertain
he → fire → police
Police said that John was so intent on targeting his former class that he ran around to the back entrance after being fired upon while trying to go in through the front. asserted
he → say → front
John, who was not enrolled in a Bend public school at the time, traveled to Silver Rail Elementary on foot. asserted
who → enrol → foot
The route is being investigated. asserted
route → investigate → ?
Griffin was shot dead minutes after he began his rampage by Kalub Giamanco, 36, (pictured) a dad of two children at the school who heard the gunshots as he drove home for his lunch break Rhoam Summer (left) was named as one of the victims of Thursday's shooting. asserted
Summer → shoot → shooting
He is pictured with his mother He threw the Maverick .88 12–gauge pump–action shotgun over the fence before jumping over but found himself blocked from entering. asserted
himself → picture → fence
He then ran to the back entrance and blasted his way in through a 'safety vestibule' system designed to keep children at the school safe from shooters. asserted
He → run → shooters
The mother of the gunman told reporters she was 'devastated' but refused to confirm she had purchased the shotgun for her son for his 16th birthday. asserted
she → tell → birthday
Shauntai Nickerson said: 'I wish I could have done something. uncertain
I → say → something
I miss my boy.' asserted
I → miss → boy
Ms Lambert's family called her 'compassionate with a huge heart', adding in a statement: 'She always fought for the underdog and those with special needs.' asserted
She → call → needs
The aunt of Rhoam, Swan Sheridan, said: 'He never met a stuffed animal that he didn't think needed to be rescued and cared for. asserted
he → say → animal
He was a fearless climber, fast runner and loved reading.' asserted
He → love → reading
…and 2 more, not listed.
💬Give feedback
🕘History 🎫Support