Students Held in Lockdown at Needham, Massachusetts, Schools While Police Pursue Murder Suspect

Two new messages vibrated my cell phone, as soon as I walked out of the doctor's office to the Brookline medical complex parking lot. I pressed View, to see my teen son's cell number displayed. This is not a usual Friday afternoon occurrence. If it's the weekend, 17-year-old Max is ready for friends and fun. Must be looking for car keys, I thought to myself, never expecting what I was about to read:

"Hey," always casual Max had written. "School's in lockdown cuz of smthn happening on Great Plain Ave. Do u now what?"

Great Plain is the main street through our upscale Massachusetts suburb, home to specialty shops like Mucca Blu Italian Café and the artsy Grey Goose gift shop.

I read the message to myself a second time, then aloud to my daughter, Glenna, who was with me.

"This must be a test of the new town alert system," I said. "They probably just haven't told them it's a test yet."

On my morning commuter train ride to work in Boston, I had just read the local Needham (MA) Times article about the 911 emergency notification system going live in town this week. Local school and police now had the technology to notify parents and residents of emergencies via automated phone and e-mail message systems.

I had gone through a similar unannounced 'lockdown test' a few years back at the middle school, in Canton, where I did a brief part-time stint as a special needs aid for dear Michael, who has muscular dystrophy. It had taken the surprise scenario to convince administrators that more planning was needed to safely evacuate special needs students and to find a better way to quickly account for all students and teachers.

But what if this lockdown really WAS for real, I asked myself? What if some crisis was going on our wealthy, peaceful, pretty suburban Boston town? What if my son really was in danger?

I called Max's Dad at work. He hadn't heard anything. He had no idea.

David. I thought. I'll call David. Photographer, tech whiz friend David is home, or at least not office-bound, during most day time hours these days, as he works to build his new photojournalist career. David will know how to find out what's happening if anyone will. That's just David.