The youngest victim who lost their life in the horrifying Brooklyn building collapse was an eager student who lit up the classroom with her kindness and love for learning, her grieving teachers told The Post.
Nikol Daniela Salvada Rodriquez, 9, a third-grader at Success Academy in Flatbush, was killed along with seven others — including her father and cousin — in the deadly disaster on Wednesday just after 4 p.m.
Her heartbreaking death has left the charter school’s community shattered, with her teachers honoring her life amid the unimaginable loss.
“She was a quiet girl, but whenever she knew that her answer was correct, she would find this courageous loudness about her and speak with so much confidence that she would encapsulate the room,” teacher Elia Robertson said.
Nikol loved to read, and was determined to excel at school, and her excitement at learning was contagious. The classroom would break out into a “dance party” anytime she scored a 100% on her ELA tests, her teacher said.
“She loved to dance,” Robertson recalled. “Every single first thing we do without her: first ELA lesson, first book reading, first math lesson — every first without her, it’s just like a re-heartbreak.”
Tyiara Flood, who also taught Nikol, said she also loved to draw, describing her as a “bright, sweet and talented scholar.”
Robertson said telling Nikol’s classmates that she died was one of the most difficult moments of her life.
“All the kids were hysterically crying and heartbroken that this person that they spent three months with — learning with, playing with at recess, dancing with in dance club — wasn’t here anymore. They couldn’t accept it,” she said.
Another one of Nikol’s teachers, Aziah Siid, said this was her first year at Success Academy after transferring in from a public school.
But despite the big change for the young student, she managed to thrive in the new environment.
“She truly was the definition of flourishing where she was planted,” Siid said. “She refused to not succeed in whatever she did.”
Above all, Nikol was a “daddy’s girl,” Robertson added while holding back tears. She was always elated to see her father, Juan Daniel Salvada Guzman, 31, who often rode an electric scooter to pick her up from school.
“She would stand in front of him and hold the handlebars, and he would stand behind her and drive the scooter. And that was the happiest she ever was — on that scooter with her dad,” Robertson said.
“So knowing her dad passed away with her, God knew that they could not be apart. No matter what happened to them, they had to be together. And so I’m just trying to find the peace in the moments that I can of knowing that she was a daddy’s little girl, and she still gets to be one.”
All three educators posted heartfelt tributes to Nikol on Instagram, featuring snaps of the little girl smiling and reading in the classroom. They also showed her drawings and notes she made for her teachers.
They also emphasized that the correct spelling of her name is “Nikol,” despite authorities announcing it as “Nicole.”
“We were so lucky to be loved by Nikol,” Siid said. “Her kindness was so infectious and pure, it’s something everyone — child and adult — should possess. Her kindness was one the world needed.”
Nikol and her father were among eight killed when the three-story apartment building suddenly collapsed. The other fatal victims were identified as Nikol’s cousin, Kevin Santiago Reyes Gonzales, 10, who was a fifth-grader at Success Academy; Gabriel Siguencia, 22; Mamadou Barry, 23; Mamadou Ndiaye, 31; Jose Luis Caguana Cosquillo, 26; and Edgar Sapon, 26.
Eighteen others were injured, including Nikol’s mother Estefania Rodriguez and her 3-year-old sister, and 9-year-old Pablo Alvarez, who sustained a critical head injury.
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office has launched a criminal probe into the collapse alongside the Department of Buildings and the Department of Investigation.
The city signed off on deep excavation plans for the construction site that likely caused the collapse — even though it lacked key structural support, The Post previously reported.
The city is still determining who is at fault.
“It’s just so unfortunate that it could have been prevented,” Robertson said.
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