PARKLAND, Fla. _ "Mrs. V" knew something wasn't right when the second fire alarm of the day sounded shortly before classes were to end at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High.
Rather than let her Algebra II students out, Shanthi Viswanathan made them get on the floor in the corner of the room. But first she put paper over the window in the class door so no one could see in.
Her actions probably saved her students, said Dawn Jarboe, whose son Brian was in the class.
"She was quick on her feet. She used her knowledge. She saved a lot of kids," Dawn Jarboe said.
Even when the SWAT team arrived and the police were saying to open up, Viswanathan took no chance that it wasn't a trick by the gunman to get in.
"She said, 'Knock it down or open it with a key. I'm not opening the door,'" Jarboe said.
And that's what they did.
"Some SWAT guy took out the window and cleared our room," Brian texted his mom.
