MEXICO CITY – A Mexican kindergarten teacher has become a minor celebrity for keeping the children in her class safe and calm while a deadly gun battle between drug gangs raged just outside the school. Martha Rivera calmly told her students to lie down on the floor after bursts of automatic weapons’ fire rang out on Friday afternoon in the northern city of Monterrey, a business hub turned into a battlefield for rival drug gangs.
Video of the incident shows several children asking nervously what is happening as the sound of gunfire echoes in the classroom. “Nothing’s going to happen to us, sweetheart, let’s just put our faces on the floor,” Ms. Rivera, 33, told one nervous child. She then led the class in song.
Five people were killed in the shootout.
The video, taken by the teacher and put on her Facebook page, soon went viral and spread across Mexico and beyond. The teacher’s Twitter account was flooded with messages of support from around the world.
“I just did what any Mother Hen would do – protect my little chicks,” she wrote on her Twitter account.
The governor of Nuevo Leon state, where Monterrey is located, met with Ms. Rivera on Monday to praise her steady nerves under fire. When she got back to school, a group of parents were waiting to give her hugs and cheers. One girl brought her flowers.