Mexico teacher sings to schoolchildren during shoot-out

Telegraph 05/31/2011 18:56

A nursery school teacher in Mexico has been hailed a hero after a video showed her calmly instructing her pupils to duck and cover and sing songs as a fierce gun battle raged outside their school.

Teacher Martha Rivera Alanis was awarded a certificate for showing "outstanding civic courage" for her steady performance during a gunfight in the northern industrial hub of Monterrey.

As Miss Rivera Alanis proudly held up the framed certificate outside the local Governor's office she said she was not concerned with fame - only the safety of her 5- and 6-year-old pupils.

"Of course, I was afraid, but I tell you, my kids get me through it," she said following the private ceremony.

Miss Rivera Alanis used her cell phone to tape the video, in which she is heard coaxing her 15 pupils to lie flat on the floor.

"No, my love, nothing is going to happen, just put your little face on the floor," she is heard telling one worried little girl.

Then, loud bursts of gunfire break out, which local paramedics later confirmed were the sound of gunmen killing five people at a taxi stand a block from the school.

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