KMOX’s Debbie Monterrey was on air during Monday’s Total Information AM when she got a concerning text from her daughter. 17-year-old Caeli was at school when a shooter entered and opened fire, injuring six people and killing two.
As soon as Debbie was off air, she ran to pick up her daughter, who thankfully was unharmed. She told the Dave Glover Show about what it was like to start reporting on the shooting that was happening at her daughter’s school.
“My kids text me a lot while I'm on the air. So I'm used to my phone blowing up a lot while I'm doing radio, they text a lot. So I looked down at my phone and my daughter had texted me in all caps, ‘Oh my god, there's an intruder in the building,’” Debbie told DGS. “My first thought, I mean, you've known me for years. I don't panic easily. I'm pretty, you know, all right, let's, you know, I'm sure there's a logical explanation. Let's not get worked up.”
But then another text came in saying it wasn’t a drill. Debbie asked her daughter if she was okay, if she was scared, what was going on. Caeli said she heard banging, but wasn’t sure if it was gunshots, then heard yelling, and that the SWAT team was coming.
“I'm thinking, Oh, my God, we're live on the air. I'm running the control board, you know,” she said. “So for listeners who don't know what our studio looks like, I'm literally running the Starship Enterprise live on the air, in-studio guests that we're interviewing, while my daughter is texting this to me. And I'm trying to maintain my composure. And I'm scared for her.”
Then the TV in the studio started showing aerial footage of Caeli’s school surrounded by police cars, kids running across the roof while police helped them down. Caeli texted her mom that she and her classmates had gotten out and run to the Schnuck’s parking lot down the street.
“And as soon as we went to commercial…I just started crying because I was like, okay, she's alive. She's safe,” she said. “But then I did another 15, 20 minutes on the air trying to be a professional broadcaster, knowing that my daughter, you know, I sadly have to say I've reported on dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of school shootings. But this was my daughter's school. And it was quite surreal.”
“Part of me wanted to leave the room,” Debbie added. “But I was like no, I have to stay calm. I don’t know, it’s this weird thing that happens. I have to maintain my composure. I’m really good in crisis situations. And then when they’re over that’s when I melt down.”
Debbie said that since the shooting, her daughter has been able to handle things pretty well, but that she knows she’s dealing with stress.
“She's a tough cookie, my daughter, and she's not usually overly, you know, emotional about things like this. But I mean, it clearly impacted her,” she said. “They were all gathering in the Schnuck’s parking lot, and everyone was hugging and people were crying. And I mean, this is not something our kids should ever have to experience. And unfortunately, it seems to happen all the time.”
Hear more from KMOX’s Debbie Monterrey talking about what it was like reporting on the shooting at her daughter’s school:
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