Philly-area students had ‘some tears’ and lots of questions after the election. Teachers made room for all of it.

Megan Kabatt arrived in her classroom at Phoenixville Area High School at 7 a.m. Wednesday, giving her an hour to sift through news coverage of Donald Trump’s early-morning victory — and prepare for a flood of emotion and questions from her AP government students — before the school day began.

“They are extremely deflated,” said Kabatt, who quickly pulled together data to explain where Kamala Harris fell short and where Trump overperformed, while also fielding questions from students anxious about what the results would mean for the next four years.

The timing of Trump’s win Wednesday — announced shortly before 6 a.m. — came right as students and teachers across the region prepared to head off to school, with little ability to process the news before classes began.

» READ MORE: Emotional reaction to Donald Trump’s election runs deep on college campuses

In Philadelphia and beyond, teachers immediately faced questions from students grappling with the outcome, and sought to harness sometimes conflicting currents of fear and excitement running through their classrooms. It would be an opportunity for big teaching moments about polling, politics, and the democratic system — but it also demanded room for debate and reflection.

At Martin Luther King High School in Germantown, teacher Steve Flemming had prepared a number of discussion topics for his communications class Wednesday morning. But the entire period was dominated by deconstructing the election and students processing their feelings about it — starting with a student who marched into Flemming’s classroom and looked directly at him.

“His first words were, ‘I’m teed off,’” said Flemming.

The young people — all students of color, mostly Black — didn’t focus on what went wrong in Harris’ campaign. Instead, they discussed Trump and what might have swung an election that had been predicted to be close. Perhaps Trump looked strong, they said — appealing to men and even some young people. (Though not them.)

”We talked about the privilege that wealthy white men in particular have in the United States,” said Flemming. “They said, ‘How is it how he can hold office? He’s been convicted of crimes.’”

Those feelings of frustration and anger also spilled out from Philly schools to the streets, as dozens of high school students walked out of class to LOVE Park Wednesday, protesting a political system they say had left them helpless.

“It was weird walking here and seeing adults cheer and give us thumbs-up like this is going to do anything,” said Amelia Carnahan, 16, a junior at the High School for the Creative and Performing Arts who said she “felt sick” when she woke up at 3 a.m. to find that former Trump had flipped Pennsylvania.

“We can’t vote. They can,” Carnahan said. “The adults failed us.”

Eric Holmes, a social studies teacher at Camden Charter Promise, began Wednesday by instructing his middle schoolers — some of whom had stayed up late with their parents watching returns and wanted to vent — to take a breath.

“Let’s de-stress, chill out for a little bit,” he advised them.

Most of Holmes’ students — who are largely Black and Latino — supported Harris and were concerned about abortion rights and gun laws, especially the girls, Holmes said. A small number supported Trump, and classmates wanted to know their reasons for backing the former president.

”We never had a woman president, and they shouldn’t be president,” Holmes said they responded.

Holmes said he urged students to respect different opinions. He tried to reassure them and calm their anxiety.

”At the end of the day, don’t get your emotions involved. Don’t take it personal,” he told them. “We’ll get through this like we’ve done before.”

At Collingswood High School, history teacher Eric Fieldman also tried to calm students over a variety of worries, including from transgender students who are part of his Social Justice Club. Some are involved in athletics and wondered if they would be permitted to play sports in the future, while others were concerned they could lose their health care, he said.

“Some tears. Lots of fears,” Fieldman said.

During the school day, Fieldman said, there was “chirping” from some students who are Trump supporters, including antigay comments. The school’s principal was notified to reassure marginalized students that school was a safe place, Fieldman said.

Later in the social justice class he teaches, Fieldman said, he was confronted by a freshman who supported Trump and tried to bait him. The student was surprised that Fieldman, who had supported Harris, was in school.

“Why wouldn’t I be here?” Fieldman responded. “That’s what this class is all about. We’re here to learn to have dissent and a respectful discourse.”

As Fieldman spent the day discussing the election in class — students watched CNN and were given time to ask questions — he heard from students concerned about gay rights and women’s rights, as well as public funding for education, book bans, and controversy over teaching so-called critical race theory. Students wanted to know how the election would change their lives.

”I told them I honestly didn’t know,” Fieldman said.

While Ben Lebofsky teaches middle schoolers in a politically divided community — the Council Rock School District, in Bucks County — he didn’t witness any conflict Wednesday.

“I feel like a lot of them were given instructions to get through the day, not engage with each other,” said Lebofsky, who noted that in middle school, there’s “always potential” for kids “to lord some power over each other.”

Lebofsky, who teaches ancient history to seventh graders, did use the opportunity to talk about democracy through the lens of ancient Greece.

“I said this to the kids all day long: Every historical event is a learning opportunity,” Lebofsky said. “The benefit of a democracy is it can create a space where we negotiate through issues we disagree on.”

In Kabatt’s classroom in Phoenixville — where some of the students are Republican, but “weren’t boastful at all,” she said — some students expressed fears about what the country’s political system would look like going forward. Students voiced concern about the U.S. Supreme Court, and the prospect of Republicans taking control of both the U.S. House and Senate.

“One student asked, ‘So if Republicans take all three branches, there’s no checks and balances?’” Kabatt said. She responded that checks and balances would still exist, but that it would be “a lot easier for the president to pass his agenda.”

Before school began Wednesday, Kabatt held a meeting with the high school’s Government Club. Despite the late night, “a good amount of students” showed up to debrief, Kabatt said. “It was encouraging to see they still wanted to talk about it.”

Staff writer Beatrice Forman contributed to this article.