When the gunfire started at a Southern California high school on Thursday morning, many students reached for their phones and started texting.

“Hey mom i don’t know whats going on here at school but i love you and im so thankful for everything youve done for me,” a frightened student at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, Calif., wrote to her mother during a school shooting that killed at least two students. “everyone is saying theres a shooter on campus i dont know whats going on but i love you and dad so much.”

“Hey mom i don’t know whats going on here at school but i love you and im so thankful for everything youve done for me.” — Text from Saugus High School student

“I love you baby,” her mother Cari Wright wrote back, in texts shared with KABC-TV of Los Angeles. “Stay safe.”

Her daughter texted Wright that she was hiding in the music library with other students and later wrote that she thought she was “safe now i think” because they were being escorted out by police. After Wright was reunited with both of her daughters she told KABC, “I’m very, very happy and grateful for all the school staff that kept our students safe.”

The shooter was taken into custody after he was found on campus with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head. He also wounded three other students in the attack.

Andrei Mojica was in his Advanced Placement government class when he heard there was an active shooter. The students helped barricade the door – something they’ve practiced before. “There was just something different about it from a simple drill to real life,” he said, according to The Los Angeles Times. “We had no clue whether the shooter was on the opposite side of campus or right outside our door,” he said. “That fear made it feel like we were waiting in silence forever.”