Mom: Worse than when son was in Iraq
Suzanne Hlotke has had plenty of reason to fear for her son's safety over the past six years.
The Carol Stream woman's son, John, often went weeks without contacting his family while serving several tours of duty during the war in Iraq as a Navy nuclear reactor operator.
But Hlotke said she was never as worried as she was Thursday when she learned of the shootings on her son's campus at Northern Illinois University.
Hlotke and her husband were preparing to watch an area teenager's performance on "Jeopardy!" when news broke of the shootings at the DeKalb school.
John was on campus at the time, but officials moved him to a safe location just minutes after the shooting.
"We got him home safe and were thinking he was going to go on and get his education," Hlotke said. "And then to have him in the middle of all this is just so terrifying."
News spread quickly through the campus community and beyond as parents anxiously tried to find out about their children's well-being.
Liz Holding, an English teacher at Evanston Township High School, learned her son was safe through a phone call from her daughter.
Holding's son, Nathan Lewandowski, was waiting in a student lounge of a nearby building to begin class at Cole Hall, the site of the shooting, when he heard what happened.
The St. Charles resident was told to stay put as school officials rushed to lock down the campus.
"Thank God he wasn't hurt," Holding said. "All those poor parents, I've just been imagining what they must be going through."
Holding's husband, Kenneth Lewandowski, said he was saddened to hear of the shooting, but felt there was little that could be done to prevent it.
"It sounds like Northern Illinois did everything they could to prepare things," he said. "The lockdown happened immediately. The news went out immediately that the gunman was dead."
Patsy Conger's first news came from her daughter, Mattie, a senior at the school.
"For me it wasn't so bad because she was the first person I heard from," Conger said, adding that her daughter would stay on campus to finish the school year.
"I can't see how we can protect our family anymore," the Aurora woman said. "I am not going to take any drastic actions. We have to keep going and just hope it doesn't happen again."
Maria Kozuch had a different response. The Homer Glen woman said she likely will pull her freshman daughter, Paulina, out of Northern in favor of a nearby community college.
"You send your kids to school thinking everything is going to be OK and not thinking something like this is going to happen," she said. "We'll probably go back onto campus tomorrow or Saturday to pick up her things."