During the mass shooting at a South Florida high school on Wednesday, many frightened students feared the worst as they waited under a lockdown.
Huddled in closets and classrooms, hiding from the horror, many took the time to text their family and friends to alert them about the emergency situation — and to tell them “I love you” for what might be the last time as a gunman stalked one of the school buildings, firing an assault rifle.
Seventeen students and adults were killed, and 15 others were injured, in the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
“If I don’t make it I love you and appreciate everything you did for me,” Sarah Crescitelli wrote to one of her parents in a heart-wrenching conversation tweeted by Miami Herald reporter Chabeli Herrera.
Herrera later informed her Twitter followers that Sarah was OK.
Kaitlin Carbocci posted screen shots of a conversation she had with her sister, Hannah, while Hannah was hiding at the school.
In the exchange, Hannah asks Kaitlin to call 911 because there’s a shooter at her school and she can’t get cellphone service. Kaitlin appears shocked.
Hannah tells Kaitlin that a student in her class was injured when a bullet went through the wall.
She tells her sister that she’s scared and for Kaitlin to tell her parents that she loves “them so so much” for her.
Kaitlin also informed followers that Hannah is safe.
Carli Teproff of the Miami Herald posted a conversation between a 14-year-old on lockdown telling his father not to send his mom to the school to pick him up because she “could get hurt.”
Teproff later tweeted that the 14-year-old student had been reunited with his family.
In an emotional exchange obtained by BuzzFeed, a male student texted his 10-year-old sister to tell her he loved her. The sister then informed him that their father was crying.
“Don’t be scared,” the student wrote to his younger sister. “Tell him everything is okay for now.”
He also survived the shooting.