A Denver-based Fox News correspondent reporting on Wednesday’s shooting at East High School reunited with her son, a student at the school, in an emotional on-air moment.
Fox reporter Alicia Acuna spotted her son as she was reporting live from outside the school after a student there shot two faculty members earlier in the day.
“Excuse me, my son just came up, and I had not seen him,” Acuna told “America Reports” anchors in the middle of the broadcast.
The reporter’s son walks over into the camera’s view and the pair embrace in a tight hug.
“I’m sorry, I had not seen my kid,” Acuna said, growing emotional. “I’m so sorry, there is no way you would have let your kid walk by.”
She said her son is OK and he was the one who informed her something was up at his high school. He had been texting her as police and emergency personnel were arriving at the building.
“I was sitting in my desk, working on a different story, and I started getting texts from my son, saying that he was in an assembly and then, all of the sudden, there were police officers everywhere, there were ambulances, the assembly was shut down and there were cops guarding their door,” she said.
Acuna delivered her report as a concerned — and frustrated — parent at the school.
The suspect, identified as 17-year-old Austin Lyle, was reportedly patted down by school officials daily due to concerns about his behavior.
Lyle, who was found dead in an apparent suicide Wednesday night, had shot and injured two faculty members who were searching him for weapons just before 10 a.m. One of the victims was released from the hospital, but the second remains in critical condition, officials said.
Acuna questioned why parents weren’t aware of the school’s daily pat-down programs.
“I had no idea, and a lot of other parents had no idea, that their kids were walking into the same school with other kids that were under a plan, that were being patted down because there was enough concern to do so on a daily basis,” she said.
“When I asked why parents weren’t being told this, I was told by the superintendent that was to protect the privacy of the people who were being patted down,” the journalist and mom added. “As a parent, my question is, ‘What about the safety and the concerns we have for all of our students?’ There is a tremendous amount of frustration right now.”
