PALM BEACH CO., FL (WPTV/WSVN/CNN) - When shots rang out at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, terrified students began texting their parents.
One of those parents was Annika Dean, who herself survived the deadly shooting at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport in 2017.
Dean is grateful her son survived Wednesday's shooting and says she shared her own survival experience with him.
"As soon as I heard the gunfire, I knew it was gunfire," she said.
Dean, an art teacher, survived the airport shooting one year ago.
"(My son said), 'Mom, there's a school shooting drill. It's really scary, they got a gun and fired it. It's really scary. Everyone was running and screaming.' And then a minute later he said, 'It's not a drill,'" she said. "As soon as I realized that it was an actual shooting my heart just sank. (He said), 'We're safe, we're good, we're OK. But just in case, I love you.'"
She's grateful again, this time that her son survived the Douglas High School shooting.
"I definitely had a sense of what he must be feeling and what he was going through and there was nothing I could do," she said. "I was grateful for every text he was sending me. It is different when it happens to your kid, and I wasn't with him. He was on his own."
Dean says she's still in disbelief and glad her son is safe, but she is mourning for two of her best friends.
One's daughter died in the massacre, and another's daughter is recovering from gunshot wounds.
Dean says after surviving the airport shooting, she taught her kids to prepare for attacks in public.
"I just can't believe it, and it feels a lot like last year, but worse in the regard that I know people that were injured or killed," Dean said. "I know them. They were in my Sunday school class I'm their Sunday school teacher. They're in my church. It's just really hard."
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