I didn’t have to explain because they already knew (cue just awful next day at school with just nothing happening). You could see it on faces walking into the building. We had a short script to read if we needed, but I think we were told to address it. By the time I actually said it out loud to any student, only a few students had yet to put it together. Students often find things out before me.
not a teacher, but i was a student. when i was in grade 9 (around 14 if you’re in the us) we had a student in our school die. she and i weren’t very close, i’d say we were acquaintances. they announced it during the morning announcements that day and we had a moment of silence. each of the classes or clubs that she was in had a day of counseling/therapy with the guidance counselors/school psychologists.
Not a teacher but I’ve had several situations like this.
Elementary school teacher was killed in a car accident on her way to school. She was my older sister’s teacher. Small school in southern Oklahoma, so they brought each grade to the auditorium one at a time to give us the news. Counselors were available. Handled very well by an otherwise fairly shitty school.
In high school, my senior year. First period, the principal comes in, which is exceedingly rare, and tells us a classmate had passed away. He and I were practically inseparable in middle school, but had grown apart in high school. Barely saw each other or spoke. He had dropped by my house a few days before and I basically told him I was too busy to talk to him and sent him on his way. I carry a lot of guilt over that. Never found out 100% what happened, as the rumor mill started immediately, but I believe it was suicide. Tearing up just thinking about it. Janusz, I’m sorry man.
At work (not a school) we had a coworker have a miscarriage later in pregnancy (end of second/early third trimester). It was really helpful to be informed in email (we had over 100 employees so wasn’t feasible to get them all together) about why she wasn’t around and to have a reminder for my more dense coworkers how to handle the situation in a more sensitive way when she returned.
I know it doesn’t quite fit the exact scenario requested, but I thought it relevant enough.
Not a teacher but, in middle school. my first class of the day we get the news of a classmate who was drowned by his own mother. Surprisingly our teacher took the news pretty easy, but we all knew he was uncomfortable since we had him for a while.