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Santa Fe High School students have created a memorial to honor the lives lost in a deadly shooting on May 18, 2018 that left eight students and two teachers dead and many others injured.
"The [Santa Fe Ten Memorial] Foundation has now supported a project generated from students called 'The Unfillable Chair,'” Santa Fe High School Principal Rachel Harris told The Houston Daily. "That chair was designed by students and will be dedicated on May 18, 2021 and placed by the trees at Santa Fe High School."
All four classes who lived through the shooting participated in the design of the memorial chair. Even before the concept of the chair, students and families had begun planting trees in the names of those killed.
Rendering of The Unfillable Chair
| SFHS
"In September after the shooting, we had many of the students who were injured attending school," Harris said. "If you walk down our school hallways, you will pass by many items that have been created or donated in memory of the precious lives lost. We plan special activities on significant days and events such as May 18, graduation, football games and pep rallies. Our students created a 'Club Hope' that helps to teach people about safety and mental health. Also, we work closely with the Santa Fe Ten Memorial Foundation. The school planted trees in remembrance of the lives lost on May 18, 2019."
Harris says that despite the horrible tragedy, the school's students and staff have worked together to get through the trauma.
"Our staff and students remain resilient," she said. "This year our graduating class of seniors were freshmen when the tragedy happened. This group has faced many hard times including, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. They have worked very hard to focus on their education and have made commitments to continue with the traditions we have here at Santa Fe High School, despite all the hardship. Our staff have been relentless in supporting them. The relationships that have formed from these hardships have created bonds that I know will last."
Each year has brought new ways to honor the dead, Harris says, and The Unfillable Chair is just one of many tributes to those who died.
"Every year comes with different activities to honor the lives lost," Harris said. "First, mental health support, in addition to safety, has been and continues to be a priority. We have provided students, staff and families with many opportunities for mental health support such as wellness counselors, school psychologists and coordinated mental-health support with partners from Region IV, Gulf Coast Center, UTMB Telemed, the Hackett Trauma and Grief Center and RISE mobile crisis unit. We have implemented a district-wide character education program."
The Unfillable Chair will stand eight feet tall and will display the names of those killed. It will also hold the school's emblem of two arrows, which will be crossed to make the Roman numeral X in honor of the 10 lives lost.
On May 18, 2018, a 17-year-old male dressed in a black trench coat opened fire in a Santa Fe High School art classroom, The New York Times reported. In addition to the 10 killed, a dozen others were injured.
The Santa Fe High School shooting is the worst school shooting in Texas history, The Times reported, and it occurred only two months after another school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
Students plan to unveil the memorial chair during a ceremony on Tuesday.