Florida School shooting: Indian teacher’s hunch saved her students’ lives

NEW YORK: A math teacher from India is being hailed as a hero after she got her class to hunker down despite the Florida school shooter setting off the fire alarm to draw students out of their classrooms.
Shanthi Vishwanathan, called “Mrs V” by her students, knew something wasn’t right when the second fire alarm of the day sounded shortly before classes were to end at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, and rather than let her Algebra II students out, she made them get on the floor in the corner of the room, the Orlando Sentinel reported on February 16.
Vishwanathan also covered the window of the class door with paper so no one could see in. She refused to open the door even when the SWAT teams knocked, fearing the killer was masquerading as the police. She said, “Knock it down or open it with a key. I’m not opening the door,” the mother of one of the students who survived the incident related, and that’s what the SWAT team eventually did.
Such an act of courage is in sharp contrast to the pusillanimity of US lawmakers, many of them supported by the pro-gun lobby, who refuse to legislate stricter gun control despite repeated episodes of school shooting that have become the nightmare of every parent in America.

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