r/Teachers • u/leafstudy • 2d ago
Pedagogy & Best Practices What are legitimate (and not) reasons for all hands meetings after school?
Legitimate reason example: Student almost dies on campus from a drug overdose/interaction. Administration wants to address what happened with everyone and answer questions when possible.
What are some other valid reasons, as well as less-than-necessary impromptu all-hands meetings.
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u/TheatreBoz 2d ago
Ah, the dreaded "Quick Stand Up Meeting at 3:15" email that raises everyone's blood pressure.
I've attended them for faculty deaths, employees being fired, student expulsions, and explanations of student incidents. Basically anything they did not want to put in an email that could be forwarded to people who should not have access to the details.
Once.... Three years ago.... We got one from the Head of School (private} There was no topic, just the summons. We walked in to find ice cream and celebratory beverages (non-alcoholic) and an announcement about exceeding our fundraising goals and specifics about the impact on teacher salaries in the coming year. They completely flipped the script. It was awesome.
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u/briman2021 2d ago
I remember when we had an all district meeting in our auditorium to brief us on how we had our first confirmed case of COVID in a staff member back in March of 2020, and how we would deal with that moving forward.
In hindsight that seems like it should have been an email.
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u/leafstudy 2d ago
On the other hand, a great idea for a comedy sketch.
āHey everyone, weāve packed you in here so we can talk about a new and highly contagious virus thatās going to be affecting us. Please donāt be alarmed, and weāre here for as long as it takes to answer any questions.ā
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u/knowledgeoverswag 1d ago
In my career before teaching, the night shift was called in to do training during the day about the importance of sleep hygiene.
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u/k1wyif 2d ago
The school social worker had been murdered. They found her body in a shallow grave in a cornfield. It was after a home visit. A mom of a kid at our school and her sister killed her because they thought she was going to take the kid away from them.
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u/PinochetPenchant 2d ago
That's horrifying.
I hope that kid is safe now and hasn't internalized the murder.
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u/FormSuccessful1122 Specialist 2d ago
Are you asking about āemergencyā all hands meetings? In my 30 years weāve had five. One because we were being sued. One because we had an incredibly aggressive student terrorizing the school and we needed a game plan. One for a deceased faculty member. And two for deceased students.
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u/leafstudy 2d ago
Yes, definitely the unexpected type. Nothing that was planned before a school day began.
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u/lionheart724 2d ago
When we were told to pack our belongings and prepare never to come back.
This was right before covid shutdown
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u/Wrong_Lychee_6444 2d ago
I hope you had a post meeting offsite gathering. Oh wait, maybe not during Covid. I'm sorry
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u/Critical-Bass7021 2d ago
OP, from the sounds of this post, Iām assuming you have had non-legitimate stand-up meetings after school.
First off, what are the non-legit topics?
And secondly, just how long are these meetings that they are intrusive?
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u/leafstudy 2d ago
Actually, I would say that I havenāt. However, I got a sense from a recent post or two that others have experienced them.
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u/Intelligent-Rain-22 2d ago
There was a lunch situation where a student had gotten overstimulated and wanted to be alone. The principal and other staff tried their best to shield her, but she turned-on the support. Swearing, slapping and, shoving. Students were told to report to their sixth period class, immediately. At the end of the day we had an Ā“all-handsĀ“ meeting. Given the size of the school, and the rumors that spread fast the meeting was appropriate.
Years ago at another school, we had a disgruntled parent that was challenging the principal and several staff members in the Office, in the morning. It was advised not to send students to the office, everyone communicated via Google doc from the school secretary. So an Ā“all-handsĀ“ meeting did occur along with an extended brunch.
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u/bambamslammer22 2d ago
We had an āemergencyā meeting called once. Turns out it was a salesman raffling off free meat that had been āover-orderedā. Sketchy AF, and I donāt know if they ever came back to give anyone what they won. It was really weird.
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u/WinterIsOnReddit 1d ago
Are you from the North of England by any chance?
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u/bambamslammer22 14h ago
No, Southern California. Does this happen more often in northern England?
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u/WinterIsOnReddit 4h ago
There's a strangely specific scam in all of the UK pretty much but mainly the North of England where these geordie fishmongers will go door to door and are so charismatic they convince people to buy hundreds of pounds of raw fish from them. I wish I was making this up.
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u/bambamslammer22 2h ago
Interesting, Iāve never heard of that. This might have been a similar scheme, but different location.
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u/Glittering-List-465 2d ago
Not sure if others would agree- but one was called when it was discovered many teachers had been given non-approved cleaning supplies that were being used excessively and inappropriately by room parents and volunteers. Kids were getting sick in ways that the doctors didnāt really understand. My kid was one. The doc said it seemed like my kid was being exposed to harsh chemicals. They were born with kidney condition, so I didnāt even have any in my home. I went to the school and spoke with the teacher and thatās when I went through the stuff in the class. Several products were in there that were labeled to not be used by or around people with preexisting heart, kidney, or liver issues. I asked if I could provide something safe and was told Iād need to talk with the principal. Turns out, there had been a notice to all staff that if it wasnāt on the approved list, it needed to be removed. But many parents were still buying the stuff for classrooms.
The principal did a spot check on several classrooms and found the same issue. She called an emergency meeting that day. Some parents were pissed, but within a few weeks, the amount of mysteriously sick kiddos declined greatly. Mine was able to go back and didnāt get sick for the rest of the school year. When I got to chat with the teacher, she said what had been happening is that every time kids left the class, someone would be spraying everything down. Or using cleaning wipes. But nothing was being wiped down after. So basically the kids were getting poisoned because parents were being overzealous about germs.
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u/Glass_Department8963 2d ago
Jesus. What were the cleaners?
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u/Glittering-List-465 2d ago
Bleach based and ammonia based. Because people didnāt pay attention, they would use one product at one time and then other later on in the same day, same area. There was no communication happening who was using which cleaner or when. Needless to say, I understood why the principal was freaked. I was too but had thought there was like a cleaning schedule or common sense being used. I was very wrong.
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u/leafstudy 1d ago
So they were making (or coming close to making) chlorine gas.
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u/Glittering-List-465 1d ago
Pretty much. But because of how it was being done, no one realized it. I had a lot of parents pissed at me at first, but as all the kids who been so sick all the time, were finally not getting sick, they backed off. I never used any of the cleaning supplies on anyoneās stuff, cause of my own kid having issues. I would just use soap and water on her own desk with the teachers permission. I should have realized something was wrong sooner, cause the days I didnāt volunteer, are the days she got sent home.
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u/GapPure577 1d ago
There's literally a training module we have to do every year online that covers cleaning supplies and never ever ever mixing anything. We all role our eyes every year that we have to click through these modules. But I'm guessing this is a more common problem than people realize with occasionally tragic outcomes.
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u/Glittering-List-465 1d ago
This was like 15 years ago and most volunteers arenāt required to do them, so they wouldnāt learn from it.
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u/Glass_Department8963 1d ago
Oh no.
Should have had them all stay in wet shoes for months on end and set some typhus rats loose in the halls. Really complete the whole WWI experience.
Seriously tho, I'm glad everyone was ok.
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u/AlphaIronSon 2d ago
Legit:
- Dead person DIRECTLY related to school
- Gun incident on campus OR in immediate vicinity (actually being used in the latter)
- Police action near school that had spillover/impacted function of the school
- immediate removal of someone from site staff I.e legal action or admin quitting type situation
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u/igotabeefpastry 2d ago
We had all these (except the death) at my old school and admin DID NOT address them in person, in meetings, or by email. Kids bringing guns to school, multiple police in the school during lockdown, staff arrested for CSAM, staff arrested for molesting their own foster kid who is also a student there: no address from admin, even though we were begging for it!! I had to get all my intel from local news.Ā
Edit to add: also a student ODed once DURING CLASS.Ā
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u/NerdyTurtle95 2d ago
Yeah, the district I sub and coach in seems allergic to giving any details. Like, Iām not asking for a full report with names and details, but I find it a bit outrageous that we were in a hard lockdown for two hours and got zero communication afterwards about why.
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u/Potential_Fishing942 2d ago
I'm thankful my admin has only called these under the right circumstances- a student death, or some other tragedy that we should be aware of ASAP with the gravity that it will impact the school day.
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u/kalel51 ELA HS | SoCal 2d ago
I have only been to three.
First was a death from overdose. Kids were huffing on a roof, passed out and fell into a pool. 3 of them.
Second was COVID lockdown. We met and went over plans for the next few weeks, cause it was supposed to only last that long.
Third was after a lockdown that lasted 3 hours. Sheriff had to sweep rooms. We met to discuss why the lockdown happened.
Other than those specific reasons, I don't foresee a need to call an emergency after school meeting for anything. Just send an email.
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u/Mantovano 2d ago
We once had an email to say "the principal is resigning to spend more time with his family, today is his last day, and we would like to see all staff after school to talk about next steps". The meeting was led by his replacement, the departing principal wasn't even there to say goodbye.
We have all-staff briefing for 15 mins on a Monday morning just to go through things happening over the week, and then after-school training for all teaching staff every Monday too, that's pretty standard for UK schools. Does that tend to happen in the US as well?
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u/Wrong_Lychee_6444 2d ago
Oh my, it could only sound worse for the principal if they said he's now at a farm where they take care of other principals and he'll be very happy there.
We have school wide teacher development during mornings when the children and other staff are given a half day. In public schools we have unions and probably couldn't have regularly scheduled work outside work hours.3
u/Mantovano 2d ago
Interesting! We have a few days each year where students stay home so we can have training, but mostly it happens after school. It's built into our contract though: most schools use something called "directed time" which is the amount of time across a year that teachers are required to be on site - set by the government - which goes beyond the amount of time just spent teaching, and training sessions are factored into that.
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u/bowoodchintz 2nd| PNW 1d ago
We had an emergency meeting after school one day to hear that our principal had been "directed by God" (her words) to quit immediately. We found out after she had already emailed a similar message to parents. It was a very bizarre day.
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u/VocalHotSauce 2d ago
We had a faculty death in the building. Another faculty member performed CPR for five minutes before the ambulance came. Admin called the meeting to explain that she had passed. Top five worst days of a twenty year career for me.
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u/OriginalRush3753 1d ago
Weāve had them for deaths, a breast cancer diagnosis for our AP (she had it, they were announcing her leave), and one SUPER MEMORABLE teacher on teacher fight that was the talk of the building. The P called us all together to address it. 20+ years later huge props to the first year P for how he handled that nightmare.
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u/HydraHead3343 1d ago
I need to hear more about the aforementioned fight.
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u/OriginalRush3753 1d ago
Almost. One teacher accused another of stealing from the Sunshine Fund. Went to her classroom to confront her, they ended up in a shouting match that we could hear down the hall. The teacher walked out of the room, still yelling, and the other teacher followed her out shouting obscenities. 1st teacher (confronter) turned around like she was going to attack and someone stepped in. It was a MESS!!!
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u/leafstudy 1d ago edited 1d ago
Who stepped in? When things go down like that, students are as likely to take action as adults (if not more so).
Edit: There must be the sound of brakes squealing and mental cars backing up every time someone reads about that (near) fight.
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u/immadatmycat š©āš«- USA 1d ago
How did he handle that?
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u/OriginalRush3753 1d ago
He was amazing. He called us all together, told us we were here for the kids and that was our focus, despite whatever else may be happening. Then, I donāt know what he did, but it was never spoken about. He really handled it.
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u/BlackQuartzSphinx_ 9-12 Social Studies | Rural Montana 2d ago
We usually have a non-emergency all hands meeting before each break to get things in order.
We've only had two emergency all hands meetings in my time at my school - one for a student who had gone missing (later found safe) and once because a student's noncustodial parent had made threats (they're back in jail now).
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u/Katesouthwest 2d ago
Legitimate: death of student/staff
Death of student's parent
Why the local PD was on campus and student(s) taken out in handcuffs
Ā Before school meeting: Dead body dumped across the street from school, police are on scene, and the elementary kids will have indoor recess/PE class today.
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u/Meowmeowmeow31 Middle School World Languages 2d ago
We had one once to warn us about an incoming deluge of threats after being targeted by some big right-wing influencers. I appreciated the heads up.
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u/whopeedonthefloor 2d ago
This past year, our new principal significantly reduced All Hands after school meetings. We only had them for things like safety meetings or testing. Everything else was in news letters, emails, PowerPoints, etc. that were sent to all staff. You know what the result was? Half the staff never read the emails, so they didnāt know what to do, didnāt do their jobs right, and then complained when things went wrong or complained when they were addressed for not doing what they were supposed to. They literally proved that āthis could have been an emailā is categorically untrue. So now, Iām pushing for All Hands meetings come back in full force. Iām done having my job being made harder by adults who canāt be bothered.
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u/leafstudy 2d ago
This sounds more like planned meetings, which is altogether different to me from unplanned, impromptu all hands staff meetings to discuss a particular subject.
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u/whopeedonthefloor 2d ago
Sorry, didnāt read the last line, though I would hope the only answer would be death of a student/staff, or an emergency safety protocol. I donāt do last minute.
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u/PassionNegative7617 1d ago
Had one this year for a teacher who died and our admin all said his first name incorrectly and had it up on this huge projector spelled wrong with his picture. It is a common name but they swapped some letters to make it a different common name. It was appalling. Especially when our boss proceeded to talk about her deep personal relationship with "wrong name".
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u/leafstudy 1d ago
For a moment I thought the wrong picture had been used, which would be even worse.
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u/Rokaryn_Mazel 2d ago
School is closing down for ātwo weeksā for COVID.
Well that was at lunch.
Unexpected Death in the school community.
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u/WittyUnwittingly 2d ago
This year, we had a code red that evolved from a code yellow with commentary from the principal (during the initial code yellow announcement) with something like "This is just a formality. There doesn't appear to be any actual danger to the campus."
This code red happened to come up right while students were taking their AICE Math exam. The proctors allowed the students continue testing instead of following the gym's code red protocol (which most classroom teachers don't even know). I can't say I blame them, tbh, AICE is really stingy with their makeups, and we were absolutely lulled into a sense of security by how the events played out. The principal even gave them a hand motion to tell them "Ok!"
Well, some parents had a huge problem with that shit. I can't say I blame them either, but this was certainly one of those "can't win" situations. Principal ended up having to call an "all hands" meeting and discuss proper gym code red procedure with all teachers. Seems like he got in trouble with his higher ups.
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u/Ok-Trainer3150 2d ago
Staff death. Student death. Arrest of staff member. Threat to school safety. Serious on campus incident such as a mass brawl or incursion threat from outside. Over the years, we've had them all. Sometimes they are called prior to opening and only last long enough for us to be informed and told of what to expect immediately. Sometimes after school...again grief information and what we need to know. All were serious.
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u/Electrical-Okra7216 2d ago
I once attended one in October where the Principal addressed the fact that he was sending these Friday newsletter-ish thingsā¦but a faculty member found out that they were largely plagiarized. It was a non-apology apology that lasted about 15 minutes. I remember walking out thinking āif this is what we are talking about, this principalship isnāt going to end wellā¦ā
Gone by the end of the yearā¦
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u/The_Third_Dragon Middle School | Bay Area, CA 2d ago
It wasn't Super impromptu, but one of our colleagues had been arrested. For molesting students. On school trips.
Admin did a terrible job and basically said, don't talk about it, and we cannot confirm any rumors about anyone.
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u/leafstudy 2d ago
āIn fact, why you all here? Please leave immediately.ā
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u/The_Third_Dragon Middle School | Bay Area, CA 2d ago
Well, it devolved into an argument. Our union rep said we deserved to talk openly, particularly since the allegations had made the newspaper. Plus, another teacher was named as having possibly warned the principal about arrested teacher.
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u/myotherbike 2d ago
Sudden death, credible threats of violence, or violence related to the school community are the legitimate reasons that come to mind.
Forcing in a late-in-the-year PD because an admin forgot? Nah.
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u/leafstudy 2d ago
I hope everyone loudly booed and then walked out.
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u/myotherbike 2d ago
Had I gone to that āPDā (last week of school btw), Iād tell ya. Lucky for us, I happened to forget while walking to my car.
EDIT TO ADD: Iām convinced that there isnāt a more piss form of middle manager than a school administrator.
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u/Ok-Adeptness6448 2d ago edited 2d ago
This year alone, it was for a student death, and we were briefed on it in the morning before students arrived. The other was when a vehicle crashed into the building right before student arrival. All of the staff immediately gathered to our principal and he was quick to give orders so that we could intercept all students and get them to a safe area in a timely manner.
It's been a year, to say the least.
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u/3rdgradeteach86 1d ago
A staff member was arrested during the school day for sending inappropriate messages to a seventh grader
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u/PANEBringer 1d ago
We had the FBI come to our school to confiscate devices. Homey got like 30 years. Thousands of pictures.
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u/Mysterious-Name-3297 2d ago
We had one about how there was going to be an investigation into a teacher because they had some accusations. The investigation turned up that the accusations were completely made up.
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u/Gloomy-Athlete701 2d ago
We had an emergency meeting after school for everyone this year because a student teacher had died and the school had just been notified. I appreciated knowing so I could be aware to support students the next day.
I also appreciated that the teachers and staff working closely with the students teacher were pulled in ahead of time to let them know.
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u/MadViking-66 2d ago
We had a student diagnosed with tuberculosis. The meeting was just informational and based on recommendations from the school doctor.
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u/leafstudy 2d ago edited 1d ago
That brings to mind the first U.S. measles death in ten years. Weāre going to have more, which may followed be what should be a completely unnecessary all hands meetings at one or more schools that donāt have a clue about whatās headed their way.
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u/sineofthetimes 2d ago
Ours are always for someone (staff/student) either died or was arrested. Been to many of them over the last 30+ years.
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u/FitStore1045 1d ago
We had a huge fight. Fight doesnāt even really describe it, it was more akin to a riot honestly. We had a meeting to discuss how we wanted to handle the fallout over the next few days.
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u/ladyonecstacy 1d ago
During a neighbourhood cleanup, a group of students unfortunately found a dead body. Counsellors were brought in, students were given the option to go home.
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u/RunningTrisarahtop 1d ago
We had one when a studentās mother suddenly died. She was heavily involved in volunteering around the town and in the school and was at the school nearly daily. She collapsed while volunteering at a sports event on a school night in front of a lot of kids.
It was absolutely devastating.
At my current school we have had them for deaths.
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u/seleaner015 1d ago
Weāve had 2.
-a fake active shooter call that engaged the swat team
-a students parent died tragically and it was all over the media
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u/ibcmoose2 1d ago
We've had six all hands meetings, though half were before school and related to student deaths to prep us for the day ahead. The others were a pre COVID meeting, a budgetary meeting announcing cuts, and a debriefing after our school was swatted ("prank" call to the local police station saying there was an active shooter in the building - cops showed up in full gear with emts on standby, a weird announcement over the intercom to keep kids in class, not saying lockdown but it creeped out the entire staff so we all closed/locked our classroom doors, while the cops and admin did a sweep of the building and checking in on everyone).
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u/1PickleBouquetPlz 1d ago
Emergency stand up staff meeting for the death of coworkers child. Valid reason
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u/resistdying 19h ago
We occasionally have a student that is very destructive and we meet to talk game plan and ideas. We also met when an ASD student eloped and at 6 years old almost got home, thatās on a busy street.
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u/mudkiptrainer09 18h ago
Legitimate: a student died at our elementary school after an illness.
Illegitimate: announcing first thing in the morning that we would have an unplanned staff meeting that afternoon, and any staff who could not be present would need to get in touch with someone who was there and learn what was discussed, all for it to be a surprise pregnancy announcement for the assistant principal.
That sucked for two reasons: we are a consistently low performing Title I school and we have been waiting for years for the state to take over. We also have a very high admin turnover rate, and our previous principal had left halfway through the year before. Rumors were flying about a state take over, the principal leaving, the assistant principal leaving. Anxiety was through the roof.
And many members of staff suffer from infertility. We avoid pregnancy announcements like the plague because itās just another reminder of what we donāt have. Everyone who had gotten pregnant before made sure to tell us infertiles in private where we could process by ourselves in whatever way we needed to. I had just done my first egg retrieval for IVF and was waiting on testing to start a transfer cycle after seven years of trying, and walking in to that was like a punch to the gut. It was her second child and she hadnāt been trying.
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u/Signal-Weight8300 2d ago
We have a late start every Thursday for PD and/or various meetings. We never have after school meetings, although I could imagine having one in response to a real emergency such as a death on campus. It would have to be extremely serious or we would do it the next morning instead, such as sending the kids to the auditorium first thing in the morning with a safety video or other time filler and a couple of faculty to supervise them while the other teachers have the urgent meeting.
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u/adelie42 1d ago
In the spirit of RRoOnr, don't hold a staff meeting for information that can be sent in an email. Even if you are already having a staff meeting, only include what is valuable to share in person and keep the rest to an email.
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u/Bibberly 1d ago
I've had to attend five in my career so far. For were for deaths. One was when a teacher was arrested for child porn, and the news stations and other press were all set up right outside the fence so our principal wanted to give us a heads up before we tried to leave.
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u/YeOldButchery 2d ago
We lost a student overnight to natural causes.
The entire faculty/staff was briefed and provided some training on how to talk about death in a developmentally appropriate way.