'This is my first lockdown. In college.' A day in the life of the school-lockdown generation
![A police patrol vehicle blocks a road outside Franklin Hall at Indiana University during a manhunt Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.usatoday.com/gcdn/presto/2022/09/22/USAT/82392100-55eb-44b6-970d-723ed0acab57-campus_police_by_KBF.jpg?width=980&height=627&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp)
![Portrait of Kelley Benham French](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.usatoday.com/gcdn/presto/2019/08/22/USAT/b0f7b31a-7c12-4952-b6c5-f9832c84fb35-french_kelley.jpg?crop=346,346,x0,y0&width=48&height=48&format=pjpg&auto=webp)
The regular school day ended, as so many regular schooldays do in America, with a text alert.
“An armed subject has been reported entering the storm drain off campus,” said the bulletin from Indiana University at 12:29 p.m. Then the next: “Occupants of Franklin Hall should shelter in place.”
It was Tuesday and I was teaching a crime reporting exercise. Proximity, I had just told my news editing class, was one of the lesser news values. It’s important, but you usually don’t emphasize it. Impact, Conflict, those are the biggies.
A student broke the news: “We’re on lockdown.”
We looked at one another. Someone received a texted photo of a man with a rifle. Shooter? Police sniper? I projected it on the screen, where it attained a life-size dimension.