In the most heartbreaking and uplifting video of the day, elementary school teacher, Martha Rivera Alanis, filmed her class as she instructed them to lay on the floor, their faces down, while she sang to them.
This would seem nothing more than daily nap time, but what differentiated this moment from any other moment of joyous schoolchildren solidarity was the fact that taking place outside the classroom windows was a drug-cartel gun battle.
The teacher sang about chocolate, a song from Barney & Friends. The children joined in, too excited to think about chocolate rain than the gunshots ringing outside.
Five people were killed at a taxi stand in Monterrey, but fortunately the children were unharmed, their consequential psychological damage thwarted by Alanis. In turn the courageous teacher was awarded “outstanding civic courage” by the state’s governor.
She responded by saying, “I’m going to carry on. Of course it is possible. If my 5- and 6-year-olds can do it, it is up to the rest of us to carry on.”