Indian-American teacher hailed for saving students during Florida shooting
New York: An Indian-American maths teacher is being hailed for saving the lives of her students during the shooting rampage at a Florida, high school that left 17 dead.
When an alarm sounded for the second time on Wednesday afternoon, Shanthi Viswanathan shut the doors to her algebra classroom, made the students crouch on the floor and covered the windows, keeping them out of the reach and sight of the gunman, the Sun-Sentinel reported.
"She was quick on her feet. She used her knowledge. She saved a lot of kids," Dawn Jarboe, the mother of one of Viswanathan's students, told the newspaper.
When an elite police SWAT team came and knocked on the door asking her to open it, "Viswanathan took no chance that it wasn't a trick by the gunman to get in" the newspaper said.
"She said, 'knock it down or open it with a key. I'm not opening the door," Jarboe quoted her as telling the police.
"Some SWAT guy took out the window and cleared our room," Jarboe's son, Brian, texted his mother.
It may be recalled that a former student of the school, Nikolas Cruz, barged into Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Valentine's Day and killed 15 students and two staff members with an AR-15 automatic rifle.
However, he was reported to have had a troubled childhood and had threatened in a YouTube post to shoot up schools.
Although it was reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the agency closed the investigation without locating him, according to media reports.
The shooter abandoned his gun and during the ensuing chaos mixed in with the students to escape. He was captured about 40 minutes later in a neighboring town, authorities said.
In the entire Broward County, where Parkland is located, the Indian population is 22,600, according to statisticalatlas.com. But none of those killed are of Indian descent.
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HD Revanna gets interim bail in sexual harassment case
Bengaluru, May 16: A court here on Thursday granted interim bail to JD(S) MLA and former Karnataka Minister H D Revanna in a sexual harassment case.
The case of sexual harassment of a 47-year-old house help was registered against Revanna and his son and MP Prajwal Revanna at the Holenarsipur town police station in Hassan district on April 28.
Prajwal reportedly left for Germany on April 27 and is still at large.
The complainant had claimed that the father-son duo had sexually abused her at the 66-year-old MLA's house.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) which is probing the alleged sexual abuse charges against Prajwal and related cases, had sought custody of the former minister.
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Revanna’s advocates sought anticipatory bail in the case. However, the 42nd Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court (ACMM) heard the matter and gave interim relief to Revanna till Friday.
The SIT had sent two notices to Revanna, son of JD(S) patriarch and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, and Prajwal to join the investigation, but both of them skipped it.
On Thursday Revanna applied for anticipatory bail and the SIT objected to this and sought his custody or that he be remanded in judicial custody. The court, after hearing both sides, decided to hear the matter again on Friday and till then gave relief to Revanna.
A Special Court for Elected Representatives on Monday granted bail to Revanna in case where he is accused of having kidnapped one of the women allegedly abused sexually by Prajwal, as seen in the leaked videos.
Revanna was then released from jail.
He had been arrested by the SIT on May 4 in that case.
The 33-year-old Prajwal is facing charges of multiple instances of sexually abusing women. The scandal has raised a political storm, with the ruling Congress and BJP-JD(S) engaging in a slugfest.
He was BJP-JD(S) alliance's joint candidate from Hassan Lok Sabha segment, which went to polls in the first phase on April 26.
An Interpol Blue Corner Notice issued against Prajwal in an effort to bring him back to the country to face the law has not yet had the desired effect.
