A math teacher of Indian origins was stuck in the Florida high school shootout. She is a hero for risking her life to save her students during all that turmoil. Mrs. Shanthi Viswanathan, aka ‘Mrs. V’ suddenly realized something was wrong when the fire alarm rang for the second time at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Also, all this was happening on a Wednesday.
Immediate Action By Her
Mrs. V immediately took action by making her students crouch on the floor and covered all the windows with paper so none can see inside instead of sending her students outside of their Algebra class. The mother of one of her students had stated that Mrs. V’s quick thinking helped save her student that day.
Dawn Jarboe, the mother of Brian who was a student at said: ‘She was quick on her feet. She used her knowledge. She saved a lot of kids.’Even a SWAT team member was unable to convince Mrs. V to open the door, as she was doubtful if it might have been a trick done by the gunman to gain access to the room.Dawn also mention ‘She said, “Knock it down or open it with a key. I’m not opening the door.”‘
SWAT teams had to smash through the window to gain entry to the room. All this was being relayed to Dawn by her son who was texting her from class. The shooter was a former student Nikolas de Jesus Cruz, 19, who began shooting just after 2 pm on Wednesday.
In an old tribute to Mrs. V, on the website Rate My teacher, she was described as a ‘wonderful teacher who allowed me to expand my learning platform’. Isn’t Mrs. V a wonderful teacher? Here are some chilling photographs from during the shootout.