I remember it well - eleven years old and the principal’s secretary came in to our sixth grade classroom with a radio, whispered something to our teacher who announced JFK had been killed. A couple of kids started to cry and the chain-smoking terminal spinster biddy got mad and told them to stop that, no reason to get upset, etc. They dismissed school early and I remember my mom shaking her head with sadness when she saw me coming up the driveway - then came the LBJ debacle.
The kids has every reason to be upset. My mother cried. And I bet your teacher would have cried if someone took her cigarettes from her.