I believe that it is important for classroom teachers to talk about tragedies. I think that it is important to talk about the issue, the feeling behind the issue, and coping ideas.
Students (especially elementary) look up to their teachers, and if a teacher is giving advice and coping mechinisms it is likely that the students will follow suit. If I were in this situation, I would first contact the school counselor and ask them questions on how to best reach the students. There may be a student in my class that is closely related to the tradegy and I want to make sure that I am careful about that. After that I would begin searching online, or in teaching publications for ideas on how to talk about the issues.
I think that these tragedies are good for teachable moments. It is important that clear, precise facts are given though. Many of these experiences are things that will happen once in a lifetime, but will most likely open one’s eyes up to what is really going on. Teachers need to embrace the chance (given by the tragedy) to teach students current events, and prevention for these issues to not repeat themselves.
Before sharing information, make sure the information is found in many sources. Usually when a specific idea or statement is in multiple texts, it is true. All information must be thoroughly read through to get rid of all biases.