She survived a school shooting. Now her children have, too

 Mom, there's a shooter,  Michelle's fifth grader said through the phone.

Something about her son's serious tone was familiar.


 If you've ever gotten a call that a loved one passed away … that kind of tone,  Michelle explained.

The 40-year-old mother would later compare it to the sound of her principal's voice echoing through the loudspeaker 25 years ago:  Lockdown! Lockdown! 

When she was in ninth grade, a former classmate opened fire at her high school in El Cajon, California.

Like then, she immediately knew in her gut the situation was serious.

And Michelle was right. A former student had just shot through the glass doors of her son's school, Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Oregon, and opened fire on a special needs classroom, killing a beloved teacher and three students.

Courtesy of Michelle via CNN Newsource A mother who lived through a 2001 school shooting comforts son during Silver Rail Elementary shooting.

CNN has agreed to withhold Michelle's last name and the names of her family members for privacy concerns.

Michelle told her son that she loved him, but that he needed to hang up immediately and remain quiet while she called 911.

As a school shooting survivor herself, she knew the importance of her son staying silent and not alerting the shooter to his location, she said.

She immediately fled the Olive Garden where she and her mother had been eating lunch and called 911 as she ran, her mother trailing behind her. Emergency operators in Bend always answered immediately in her experience - but that didn't happen this time.

 It was just ringing, ringing, ringing, and nobody was picking up,  she said.

No response bred panic

Police cars and firetrucks crowded the streets as Michelle neared the school. Alarmed parents followed closely as she ran up to Silver Rail Elementary.

 What's going on? Is someone hurt?  she frantically asked parents and police officers when she reached the front of the school. The police informed them that the shooter was dead, though this offered little relief.

Michelle s
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