Heartbreaking messages between a student at Apalachee High School and his mom have revealed the moment kids learned there was an active shooter.
Erin Clark received a text message from her son, Ethan, at 10.23am on Wednesday morning telling her that there was a school shooting underway.
He wrote: ‘school shooting rn (right now). I’m scared. I’m not joking.’
His mom responded instantly, assuring him that she was leaving work. In a heartbreaking response, Ethan wrote: ‘I love you.’
‘Love you too baby. Where are you?’ Clark said.
Ethan told her that he was in class, adding ‘someone’s dead.’
NBC reports two people have died and at least four more are injured in the Winder, Georgia, tragedy.
The high school, which is home to around 1,900 students, is 25 miles west of Athens.
The Burrow County Sheriff’s office said multiple casualties have been reported and one person has been taken into custody.
Clark later shared her exchange with her son on Facebook, describing the whole ordeal as her ‘worst f***ing nightmare.’
She said her son, a high school senior, heard ‘eight or nine’ gunshots ring out before he closed his classroom door, as another student moved chairs and tables in an effort to block the door.
It comes as frantic parents wait at the school for their children to be released. It’s understood all students are now on the oval and are free to be released.
One woman who was waiting for her friend to pick up her children went live on TikTok showing the aftermath of the shooting.
‘It is very quiet,’ she said.
‘It was very loud when I first got here and now it’s very, very quiet. They say they’re going to release kids to parents but I haven’t seen anyone start walking this way.’
The woman said there are ‘so many police I can’t even tell you. The road is just completely blocked all the way up.’
News sources on the scene revealed distressed parents were having to park up to a mile away from the ground and make their way by foot to their kids.
Another parent who also described the tragedy as a ‘parent’s worst nightmare’ said her daughter was ‘shaken up but okay.’
‘To hear my baby crying and saying she is scared, I felt helpless because I could not get to her.
‘The shooting happened very close to her classroom. So close that she heard gunshots.’