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Mexican teacher honored for keeping kids calm during shootout

By the CNN Wire Staff
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Deadly shooting outside kindergarten
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • A video that has gone viral on the Internet shows the teacher singing as shots ring out
  • She tells the kids to stay flat on the floor
  • Five people were killed in the violence, a state-run news agency reports
RELATED TOPICS
  • Mexico
  • Crime and Law
  • Shootings

Mexico City (CNN) -- A preschool teacher in northern Mexico was recognized for her courage after a video that went viral on the Internet showed her calmly leading the class in song as gunshots went off outside, state media reported.

In the video, Martha Rivera Alanis can be heard telling her kids to lay on the floor and stay down.

"Let's sing a song!" Rivera Alanis shouts. The children agree. At least one little girl smiles.

Gunshots ring out as the class sings about chocolate raindrops falling from the sky. Rivera Alanis tells her students nothing is going to happen and tells them to stay flat on the floor

Authorities in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, where Rivera Alanis works, honored the teacher Monday, praising her courage and ability to stay calm during the shootout last week, Mexico's state-run news agency reported.

"I'm very proud of my kids because ... they were the ones who gave me the courage and love to act in this way," she said, according to Notimex.

Rivera Alanis took the video with her cell phone, the agency reported, and accepted the recognition "in the name of all teachers."

Five people were killed in the Friday shootout near Rivera Alanis' school, Notimex said.