Reply #3: That "sitting in the classroom as not to traumatize the children" thing

[eyesroll]

always gets me.

Don't people often suddenly have to get up and leave? As long as they don't run from the room screaming, they take it in stride. He could have simply said, "Could you please excuse me, children?" and left. The kids probably would have assumed he needed to go to the bathroom or talk about grown-up stuff. (Didn't your first-grade teacher occasionally need to excuse him/herself -- even in the middle of a book -- to the hallway to talk to someone?)

I don't have kids, but I've been around them enough to know that getting up and doing your damn job isn't something that frighens them.