SANTA CLARITA, Calif. — As Saugus High School students were coming in by the bus loads, many parents filled Central Park for the check out process to their kids to go home, following a shooting Thursday morning in Santa Clarita.

Nearly three hours had passed since they received the alert of an active shooter on school campus.  

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It was a long process, but eventually they were able to leave the park.

One of those parents was Darin Ellis whose daughter is a freshman at Saugus. He said he was in a state of shock when he heard what happened at the school.

“You know being a parent and all, you want to make sure your kids are safe when you drop them off at school,” Ellis said.

He called his daughter Emilee right away, but she said she could only whisper.

Emilee said she was in the bathroom with a friend when they came out to see book bags scattered in the quad where officials said the shooting took place.

“We didn’t know what happened. We thought class started. But then someone in the office to get into a classroom and we rushed into the office," Emilee said.

While in the office, she recorded a video that she posted to the social media app TikTok.

“My heart was beating so quickly, and we didn’t know what was going on first of all. We were all under a desk, and the alarm was going off, and we didn’t know what to do. I was trying to comfort a bunch of my friends. One of my friends that was under the desk with me also had a friend that got shot right next to her," Emilee said.

While Ellis said he’s relieved his daughter is safe, he feels for the other families. 

Emilee said the healing process for her and the rest of the students is a long road ahead.

“I know that it can happen anywhere, but it was just surprising that it happened to me and it happened to all these kids. And now everyone is mentally scarred," Emilee said.