Thank god, no one died.

Potential trigger warnings: guns, school lockdowns

I go to a private school in the Midwest. I am a graduate student at a private school that considers itself on par with Harvard, where the students come from money and the university pays for my school and pays me a lot of money to go to school here. I live in a bubble where the worst lockdown I had in high school was because someone had weed in their lockers and the police had to bring in their drug dogs. I never thought it would happen to me. And to be fair, it didn't actually happen. Thank god, no one died.

I was sitting in the library with my class learning how to do 3D scanning. We were in a room used for podcasts so it was soundproof and had a door that locked. Any other day I wouldn't think much about that other than, man it's so hot in here. We're about halfway through class when the alarm system goes off, sounding a lot like a tornado siren which being from the midwest isn't that much of a shock... they used to test them in my hometown at noon every Wednesday. What followed after the alarm sent me into full body chills and sweat simultaneously.

"ALERT THIS IS AN EMERGENCY. AN ARMED PERSON IS ON CAMPUS. RUN, HIDE, FIGHT."

This message will haunt my dreams for the rest of my life. We shut the 4-inch thick metal door and locked it. Myself, my advisor, a handful of graduate and undergraduate students and a couple of library faculty. Locked in a soundproof room with no windows, computer screens flashing with the emergency message. Waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting.

Eventually, another message comes through over the intercom, our phones and emails lighting up with the same message,

"POLICE ARE CHECKING BUILDINGS AFTER RECEIVING REPORTS OF A PERSON WITH A GUN."

Waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting.

"POLICE ARE STILL ON THE SCENE"

Waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting.

"POLICE ARE WORKING TO COMPLETE THEIR SEARCH OF CAMPUS BUILDINGS"

Waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting.

"ALL CLEAR. POLICE HAVE COMPLETED THEIR SEARCH OF CAMPUS AND DID NOT LOCATE AN ARMED INDIVIDUAL."

And just like that, like nothing had happened, we opened the door and went back into the library where students were much quieter than usual but back to what resembled work. The presence of police on campus was heightened, but other than a few emails from our department and administration, it was like it never happened. We may never know if this was an actual threat, or if someone decided to cause mass panic for just that. Regardless of the motive, yesterday traumatized this campus and in a year it will be a distant memory because nobody died.

Thank god, no one died.