Of course, my classes were bare today. While I understand that parents will go to extreme measures to protect their children if there is even a hint of harm, I was proud of those students who attended despite the unsubstantiated fear that had been spread. As we are on a block schedule, I only saw three classes today. Two had just over half of the students in the class, and one had just over a third.
Although I allowed us to spend the first part of each class discussing the rumor and its effects, the rest of each class went by as normal. If anything, our normal discussions were substantially better. At one point, after a particularly humorous exchange, one of the students even remarked, "I wonder if we're the only class in the school that's laughing right now."
This trend went right through to the end of the day when my smallest class met. With so few students, once our discussion on Napoleon concluded, we spent most of the remainder of class getting to know one another better. It was an open and positive conversation, and I felt closer to each of the students because of it.
Although the strangeness of the day certainly had a negative aspect to it, I came out of my classes feeling very positive about my students. Even unsubstantiated fear and rumor can have unexpectedly positive results.