Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School math teacher Shanthi Viswanathan told her students to hide in a corner during the February 14 shooting.

She covered the classroom window with paper and locked the door.

According to a parent of one of her students, she refused to let even the SWAT team in, saying "Knock it down or open it with a key. I’m not opening the door."

Her heroic actions saved her students' lives.



Shanthi Viswanathan knew something was wrong when the second fire alarm of the day went off.

A math teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School known as "Mrs. V," she was teaching Algebra II when a gunman entered the school and began firing on February 14 in an attack that killed 17 people and injured 15.

But a parent of one of Viswanathan's students told The Sun Sentinel that she did everything she could to make sure that her classroom remained safe. She told the students to hide in a corner, locked the door, and covered the window with paper so that the shooter couldn't see in.

"She was quick on her feet. She used her knowledge. She saved a lot of kids," Dawn Jarboe, whose son Brian was in her class, told The Sentinel.

When a SWAT team arrived to clear the room, she still wasn't taking any chances.

"She said, 'Knock it down or open it with a key. I'm not opening the door,'" Jarboe said.

"Mrs. V" is among many heroes who saved lives during the shooting. Others include Scott Beigel, a geography teacher who was killed while protecting students, and Colton Haab, a 17-year-old student who saved up to 70 lives by ushering people into a classroom and using bulletproof Kevlar sheets to secure their hiding place.