Singing Teacher Keeps Kids Calm During Shootout

A Mexican kindergarten teacher who calmly led her class in song as a drug cartel gun battle raged nearby has been honored for bravery. In a video of the heartbreaking scene, which went viral after a local news site found it on her Facebook page, Martha Rivera Alanis can be heard telling the children to lie on the floor and stay down, the Los Angeles Times reports. "No, my love, nothing is going to happen, just put your little face on the floor," she tells one girl.

Five people at a taxi stand were killed during the shootout in Monterrey. Alanis, who was presented with an award for "outstanding civic courage" by the state's governor, says the children set an example for the rest of the violence-plagued city, AP reports. "I'm going to carry on. Of course it is possible," she said. "If my 5- and 6-year-olds can do it, it is up to the rest of us to carry on." (More Monterrey stories.)