Mexico: Teacher Sings with Students During Shooting · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

This post is part of our special coverage Mexico's Drug War.
The YouTube video showing a kindergarten teacher singing with her students to keep them calm during a shooting in Monterrey, Mexico has spread almost virally through the Spanish speaking countries.
The video recorded by the teacher on a cellphone shows a classroom full of very young children lying on the floor. The teacher is heard gently asking her students to keep their heads on the floor while shots are heard in the background. She reassures the children that everything is ok, and that they'll be safe in the classroom, reminding them to keep their heads down. To distract them, she starts singing with them. She selects the Raindrop Song from the Barney show: in Spanish, it  wonders about what would happen if raindrops were made out of chocolate and how you'd open the mouth wide to catch them all. By getting the children to sing the song she managed not only to keep them calm but also to have them stay with their heads on the floor, as she prompted them to turn over and look up to the sky with their mouths opened wide.
Local media has identified the school as being located in the Colonia Nueva Estanzuela, just meters away from where an armed group on seven vans arrived to murder five people at an independent taxi base, and the teacher, whose identity is yet unknown has been called a hero and has been recognized by media and viewers for showing courage, character and love to her wards.