Texas Community Mourns Pakistani Exchange Student

Pakistani exchange student Sabika Sheikh, 17, was remembered in a service at a mosque in suburban Houston, before her body is returned to her family in Karachi, The Associated Press reports.

On Friday, there was another school shooting – the first of two shootings that day – at Santa Fe High School in a suburb of Houston, Texas.

“What kind of person thinks the appropriate response is to kill her and a class full of people?”

They reportedly spent weeks prepping for the massacre, killing 13 people while injuring 24.

But Lauren Severin, a 17-year-old junior wearing a cross around her neck, told Burnett that her impression of the suspect was very different after having a couple classes with him. He was arrested and is being held on murder charges.

“We are as shocked and confused as anyone else by these events”, the family said in the statement, which offered prayers and condolences to the victims.

Sabika had two USA host families. “Are we desensitized, are these children, are these teenagers?” “She was literally like a daughter to us”.

Zion Kelly is a high school student in Washington, D.C., whose twin brother was killed in an attempted mugging in September. “One of the shotgun shells was for my daughter”, she said.

Also attending the funeral was Gerri Manlove, who helps run the foreign student exchange program.

“Being a brother was his best job”, she said.

“If we’re dealing with student stress and anxieties and any bullying situations, then the problem will never come to the point where a teacher would even have to consider using a gun”, she said.

The public schools in Santa Fe, Texas, are closed Monday and Tuesday, as the community mourns and grapples with how to put the pieces back together.

The father, who owns a Houston-based shipping fix company, said his family was distraught over the mass shooting.

“If anybody listens to me, I have only one appeal”. Not just that, but it takes deserved blame away from the shooter. “I am still unable to believe that she is gone”. One of the victims, Jaelyn Willey, who later died from her injuries, was reportedly his ex-girlfriend. Host father Jason Cogburn spoke about the family’s desire to include Sabika in everything they did.

“If they are smart enough to teach our kids, they should be smart enough to see when something is badly wrong with someone”, Thomas said of the teachers of Santa Fe High School.

Her host sister, Jaelyn, called Sabika “the most handsome, loving person” she had ever met.

US Ambassador to Pakistan David Hale tweeted a statement on Sabika’s death. “What we need is action”. We can’t believe it.

On Sunday, Patrick took aim at video games and complained about the lack of religion in schools, as well as the prevalence of abortions in the United States.

Her father, Abdul Aziz Sheikh, has described his daughter as a hard-working and accomplished student who aspired to work in civil service and hoped one day to join Pakistan’s Foreign Office.

Although Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) called for an assault-style weapons ban after the Parkland shooter used an AR-15, he admitted Sunday on “State of the Union” that the Santa Fe shooter didn’t use a “military-style weapon” to carry out his carnage.

Abbott said Friday afternoon that police were investigating two residences near the school and had found explosive devices, including a Molotov cocktail, at a home and in a vehicle.

Abbott said he would talk with educators, parents and elected officials about ways to improve school security without infringing on the right to bear arms, protected by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.