May 19 (Reuters) - Eight students and two teachers fell
victim to gunfire at a high school outside Houston on Friday
morning, becoming the latest casualties in a wave
of deadly school shootings in the United States in recent years.
Among the fatalities at Santa Fe High School were a
Pakistani exchange student and a substitute teacher trying to
make ends meet for her family. Here are brief profiles of some
of the victims:
Sabika Sheikh
A 17-year-old Pakistani with a bright smile, Sheikh was
proud to be studying in the United States as an exchange
student. The experience was organized through YES, a program
funded by the U.S. State Department, according to a Facebook
post by the Pakistan Association of Greater Houston.
Cynthia Tisdale
Tisdale was a substitute teacher at Santa Fe High School.
She took on a second job as a server at a local restaurant after
she became her family's sole income earner when her husband was
diagnosed with an incurable lung disease, her brother-in-law
John Tisdale posted on Facebook. The Tisdales have four
children.
Christian Riley Garcia
Garcia was remembered on Facebook by the Crosby Church
pastor who baptized him years earlier. A photograph of Garcia,
15, taken just days before the shooting, shows him wearing
sunglasses, a baseball cap and a slight smile that reveals
braces on his teeth.
"Here is Riley about ten days ago writing scripture on the
door frame of what was to be his new bedroom," Pastor Keenan
Smith wrote. "Riley you are greatly loved and greatly missed."
Kimberly Vaughan
After a desperate search for her missing daughter, U.S. Army
veteran Rhonda Hart posted to Facebook that Vaughan had been
shot dead in her first-period art class.
"Folks - call your damn senators. Call your congressmen. We
need GUN CONTROL. WE NEED TO PROTECT OUR KIDS.
#Kimberlyjessica," Hart wrote in a Facebook post.
Shana Fisher
Just one week after she celebrated her 16th birthday, Fisher
was killed when the gunman opened fire on the art class, her
aunt wrote on Twitter. "She should be getting her first car, not
a funeral," tweeted @candithurman.
Chris Stone
Stone, 17, had a passion for adventure and football. The
high school junior's Facebook page features photographs of such
sports heroes as the Dallas Cowboys and scenic views of
breathtaking wilderness.
(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York
Editing by Frank McGurty and Matthew Lewis)