USA TODAY International Edition
‘She has us’: Funeral honors shooting victim
Pakistani student’s service draws a crowd at mosque
SANTA FE, Texas – Unlike the others who were gunned down at a Texas high school, Pakistani exchange student Sabika Sheikh didn’t have family in the U.S. to plan her funeral.
But that didn’t stop her adopted community. The 17-year-old, who had been attending classes at Santa Fe High School since last August, was honored at her funeral Sunday afternoon at a mosque in suburban Houston. The Islamic Society for Greater Houston planned the services and opened it up to members of the public, leading to an overflowing crowd. It was the first funeral for any of the 10 killed in Friday’s shooting.
“She doesn’t have any family here, but she has all of us and this whole community that is mourning,” said MJ Khan, president of the organization. “We are all there to be her family.”
She had been staying with a family that lives near the high school and was due back home in Pakistan in a few weeks for the holiday marking the end
“Even in her death, she is pulling relationships between Pakistan and the United States ... closer.”
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner
of Ramadan. As those in the community walked into the mosque, many greeted the teen’s host family with hugs and words of support.
Jason Cogburn, her host father, told stories of Sheikh’s potential and how different her culture was from Texas. They learned from each other, and his family fasted with her during Ramadan. One thing united them more than anything, he said: love.
“We loved her and she loved us,” he said, adding the “root of our issues is love. Because when people love each other, these kinds of things don’t happen.”
Cogburn said he planned to carry on her legacy and believed she is in a better place with God. “She will be very missed, but she will always be loved,” he said.
His wife, Joleen, and daughter, Jaelyn, talked about the close bond they formed with the teen over the six months she stayed in their home. The family thanked her family in Pakistan for giving them a small amount of time with the teen, whom they described as a caring and wonderful person.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said the teen’s aspirations of becoming a diplomat for her country in the U.S. will live on.
“Even through her death, she will continue to be a diplomat. Even in her death, she is pulling the relationships between Pakistan and the United States, specifically the Houston area, even closer,” he said.
Something needs to change to stop these tragedies from taking so many young people, Turner said. “I’m almost to the point where you almost become speechless because these incidents are happening way too much,” he said. “The best way we can honor Sabika is to take preventable steps to try and mitigate this from happening again.”
Her body will be taken to Pakistan, where her family will hold a service.
Many in the Santa Fe area aimed to find solace by turning to Sunday church services.
Interim Pastor Jerl Watkins had planned the morning sermon at Arcadia First Baptist Church to be geared for graduating high school seniors. Instead, he had to preach to pews full of grieving Santa Fe residents who were still questioning how it was possible that their small town could become the scene of the deadliest school shooting in Texas history.
“We have fallen away from God and put other gods in front of Him,” Watkins said. “God is not a genie that we can rub from a magic lamp. He is a loving Father that wants a lifelong relationship with us.”
Ten chaplains from the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team were invited by the church to help Santa Fe residents move forward and heal.
Gov. Greg Abbott and his wife, Cecilia, attended the service and met with survivors of the shooting and members of the community.
Abbott hugged grieving parishioners and spoke with survivors, including Monica Bracknell, an 18-year-old senior.
Bracknell told the governor she doesn’t think the shooting should be turned into a political battle over gun control and said she doesn’t believe guns were to blame in the attack.
Bracknell said she and her classmates are “shaken up” but coping.