I was in 2nd grade. We were at recess and saw our teacher walking across the school yard crying. We were so shocked to see an adult crying; everyone on the schoolyard stopped playing. The news of her crying— and then that the President had been shot—spread on the yard like wildfire. We were all shaken and scared. Some were worried Russian bombers would fly over any minute. We kept searching the sky. The bell to go in was rung early. We all went to our classrooms where the red-eyed teachers told us that we were being sent home from school. Our parents had already been notified to come and get us. From that moment on, every adult I knew was glued to the TV set for the next two weeks. Days of footage of people crying. It was a national nightmare.
I was in 2nd grade, too. I remember the teacher making a very solemn announcement. At home, my mother cried. Then later we went to church in the middle of the week.