Nicole Ybarrondo’s two children were inside Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend on Oct. 15 when a 16-year-old former student shot and killed three children and a teacher and critically injured two others. The shooter was fatally shot by Kaylub Giamanco, a parent who saw him and followed him. Ybarrondo waited nearly four hours before she was reunited with her children, a first-grader and a fourth-grader.

Eight days later, Ybarrondo launched the Silver Rail Children’s Fund. The grassroots nonprofit has raised more than $35,000 from individuals and local businesses to pay for outings and services for Silver Rail survivors, their families and school staff.

Ybarrondo spoke to OPB’s “Think Out Loud” about her family’s experience that day, why she started the fund and Bend-La Pine Schools’ plans to reopen Silver Rail on Nov. 12.

Here are highlights from that conversation, edited for brevity and clarity.

Ybarrondo on how her family is doing and the day of the shooting

“Today was a harder day. My kiddos have been, as expected, really attached since the shooting happened, which is not their norm. They’re very independent these days. My son is 6 years old, in first grade, and my daughter is 9, in fourth grade, and I think given what happened, it’s perfectly understandable.

“We have harder days, and we have days that are less hard. I wouldn’t say that any days are easy right now. I think I’m having a harder time because [Kaylub Giamanco’s] 911 call was released publicly a few days ago, and that was really difficult to listen to.

“I was working out in Sisters when I got the first call from the school. One of my neighbors called me, and I couldn’t understand her. She was very breathless, but she just said, ‘There’s a shooter, there’s a shooter in our school right now.’ I hung up the phone immediately and screamed and ran to my car, and then proceeded to drive about 20 minutes to Bend for what felt like the longest drive of my entire life, thinking about Uvalde the entire time and hoping it wasn’t another Uvalde situation.

“By the time that I was nearly there, it was completely blocked off, and they told me that I had to go to a reunification center. I waited at the reunification center for nearly four hours before seeing my children safe.

“My 6-year-old, he was pretty far away. He heard the gunshots, but he just said that was a really scary fire drill. His teacher later told me that he had cried and fallen asleep on her lap while they were still waiting in their classroom.

“My daughter was in a reading group in an open area directly above the special ed room, in an area called the Commons, when it started. She heard every bullet, the glass breaking, the teachers screaming and pleading for their lives, the children. She heard everything until there was nothing left to hear. While she was listening, she was running around trying to get somewhere safe, but it had gone on lockdown, and she was in the open and left without a door to hide behind. She was running and trying to open doors with other kids. They were tripping and falling and panicking. They had a substitute, and that poor woman — I hope she’s OK — was not prepared for that to happen. Nobody is. And our babies were just out there.”

On why she started the Silver Rail Children’s Fund

“Like everybody else with children in the school that day, and those who lost their children, we were in our homes with grief and not really leaving our homes. And we did hear that there were so many wonderful people in the community. Bend is such a great community, and they were stepping up and raising funds to help the victims, the injured, the survivors and the staff.

“We were volunteering with the PTO, and the pumpkin patch said that they would like to close down and invite the entire Silver Rail Elementary School for a day at the pumpkin patch, like a field trip. They mentioned that they only needed to cover their staffing costs. So I went back and asked for those funds to be covered, and that’s when I learned that, due to bylaws and organizational rules, that money is not for the victims or their families, but rather the school or the district.

“I was very confused, and I was upset. I went to crisis counseling that day, and the crisis counselor told me about a different school that had a nonprofit that was parent-led. So I started the Silver Rail Children’s Fund, which is a survivors fund, but also for the families that lost someone that day and their children, and for the teachers and their children.

“And we went to the pumpkin patch. They turned off the cannon and the shooting gallery out of sensitivity, because many of our kids are not OK, and the parents are not OK. A local business stepped up and pledged to pay the full amount, and we had over 340 of us at the pumpkin patch. The sky was blue, and the birds were singing, and the leaves were golden, and it just felt like a nervous system reset. We got to hug each other and talk as adults while our children ran through pumpkin fields, and it was very therapeutic.

“Something that wasn’t considered or talked about [by the district] was the lost education and what it means for our kids to sit in their classroom again, especially our fifth grade classrooms, whose windows overlooked the exact area where the shooter threw his gun over the fence and ran across the field. Those kids saw it, and they’re suffering from survivor’s guilt. They lost a classmate. When they get back into that class, it’s going to be very hard for them to focus. There’s going to be hard days, and they might need to come home and miss some more school.

“There are studies from Stanford that show that children who witnessed or survived a school shooting are much less likely to graduate high school and have lower grades. So one of the things that the fund is looking to do right now is we’re working with local tutors here in Bend. We’re also informing the families who have already packed up and left or have gone to homeschool that this resource is available for them. The Silver Rail Children’s Fund will pay for private tutors, or for after-school reading or math intervention like a Kumon or Sylvan Learning Center. We are pledging to stand by these children for as long as funds allow, to not only help them socially and emotionally, but also academically.”

On her children returning to Silver Rail, and district leaders saying they can’t afford the security measures parents requested

“I think that choice belongs to my children. I wasn’t in the building that day. They were. When I heard it was reopening on the 12th, I thought, OK, it’s really important how I let my children know that their school is reopening. My emotional response and how I lead is the model that they will follow. So I casually [told my daughter], and she started to do a little dance.

“I know our kids want to be together with their classmates. Even victims after 9/11 said that when they were with somebody who had that shared experience, it provided a certain level of healing that they weren’t able to reach individually. So I do see a therapeutic opportunity for my daughter to be resilient and brave and to go back on Thursday the 12th, and she has made that choice. I have a lot of other ideas and opinions, but ultimately, it’s her choice. I support her, and I will be taking her to school.

“My 6-year-old, even though his exposure was more distant than my daughter’s, did not want to immediately go back to the school. When we drive past the school, I said, ‘Oh, look, they’re doing construction; they’re fixing it.’ And he says, ‘I don’t want to go back there. They have too many fire drills, and kids die at fire drills.’ So I don’t know if my son wants to go back. I haven’t had that moment to sit down with him and ask him. It’s up to him.

“[At a meeting for Silver Rail parents,] we received many of the same answers and were essentially told to start a political action committee to get the funds. It’s frustrating, but I understand that we were already struggling as a school district to support just the staffing needs for our children before Oct. 15 happened. I’m trying to be logical and understanding with everybody and with Bend-La Pine Schools.

“It doesn’t make me feel good to know that that beautiful school was built without bullet-resistant film or bullet-resistant glass. And I don’t think it’s a reasonable ask either to say Bend-La Pine Schools needs to retrofit every single window and door and replace them with bulletproof glass. All of our kids would be out of school and in this limbo and in this nightmare that our Silver Rail kids and families are going through today. I don’t feel good about that, but I guess that’s our reality.”

On her hopes for the Bend community

“I really hope that this doesn’t happen again. This child who got his hands on a gun was in a very dark place. He didn’t have the supports in place. That child was failed. I think that we could have done better by him.

“My heart breaks for that child, for who he was before that day. His actions that day and the result — I have no sympathy for him. But for the child he was before, my heart breaks. And I hope that our community can see that there are a lot of children that are in a similar position to him in Bend and across the country.

“I think that we need to do better at every single level, at a grassroots level in the neighborhood. There are other kids that are 8, 9 and 10 that attend Silver Rail that don’t have a great home environment. These are the kids that I hope to embrace with the Silver Rail Children’s Fund. I hope to identify every one of our kids who needs the extra set of eyes, who needs that mentorship, that needs that community and that support.

“If we can’t fix the federal laws and the left and the right and gun laws and mental health and how slow governmental bodies move, we can start right at home with the kids in our neighborhood and the kids at our schools and the kids in our community, and we can help those children.”

Nicole Ybarrondo, founding director of the Silver Rail Children’s Fund, spoke to OPB’s “Think Out Loud.” To hear the full interview, click the play button below.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/11/09/silver-rail-parent-on-her-childrens-trauma-a-fund-for-survivors-and-the-schools-reopening/