When you get scared, who’s the first person you reach out to for comfort?
For many of us, the answer is most likely a parent. These are the people we know we can trust the most, who we know will always do everything in their power to protect us.
But what if they can’t?
School is meant to be a safe place for students to come and learn.
But just this year alone in America there have been 15 school shootings in which someone was hurt or killed.
On April 30, a gunman opened fire at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Two people were killed in the attack and four others were wounded. The shooter had been a former student.
Just seven days later, another shooting took place, this time in Dever, Colorado.
According to The Denver Post , two students who attended the STEM School Highlands Ranch opened fire at the school on May 7, killing one and injuring eight others.
This incident marked the fourth school shooting in Colorado since the Columbine massacre that occurred 20 years ago.
Authorities have said the shootings started at 2 pm on Tuesday.
Two gunmen, one suspected to be 18-year-old Devon Erickson , entered the school and opened fire on students in two different classrooms.
One student, 18-year-old Kendrick Ray Castillo was reportedly killed while lunging at the gunman. He has been credited as giving his classmates the chance to run to safety.
During the attack, one student found himself trapped inside the gymnasium with nowhere to hide.
As reported by Daily News , the unnamed teenager immediately began texting his father, Eldon Elledge, after alarms sounded inside the school.
“The teacher thinks somebody is in the school.”
Elledge shared photos of the text conversation he had with his son during the shooting on his Facebook in which his son describes the scene to him.
First he told his dad the school was on lockdown and explained he was stuck in the gym with four entrances. His texts got much more urgent as the scene unfolded, telling his father how scared he was and begging him to come pick him up.
“There is gunshots.”
His dad attempted to help him remain calm and pleaded with him to remember to breathe. Soon after though, his son texted that he heard yelling in the hallway before telling his dad that there were gunshots.
His texts become increasingly more terrified as he repeatedly tries to text hat he hears gunshots and that the police were now inside the school.
“Dad I love you.”
Elledge instructed his son to hide but was told that there wasn’t anywhere to hide since he was trapped inside an open room.
In perhaps the most chilling moment of the entire text conversation, his son texted, “Dad I love you. Just in case.”
In his Facebook post, Elledge said he was eventually reunited with his son after showing up to the school.
He also explained that the text conversation was the scariest moment of his life.
“And as scared as I was, I was not inside the school where the shooting was happening,” he wrote. “My son was as well as over 1800 other kids, teachers and staff members.”
“I couldn’t reach out and hold him and comfort him.”
Elledge said his wife, who was driving to the school from her work 50 miles away, was also communicating with their son while he was trapped inside with the shooters.
“Please give you kids and extra tight hug each time you get the chance.”
At the end of his post, Elledge said that it is time “we all get involved in helping resolve this issue of school shootings.”
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“It is not a political fight or a guns rights issue,” he wrote. “We will not solve the problem by arguing about our beliefs or feelings or what political party is right or wrong. We will solve it by working toward good viable solutions.”
He added, “I do not want another parent to ever have to read text messages like I did yesterday. This will be what drives my focus.”