Horizon City school honors former student, youngest victim of Walmart mass shooting
HORIZON CITY, Texas -- Frank Macias Elementary School honored one of their own Thursday.
Javier Amir Rodriguez was only 15 when his life was tragically cut short during El Paso's Cielo Vista Walmart shooting. He was the youngest victim on Aug. 3rd.
Rodriguez became an Eagle at Macias Elementary School 10-years ago when he was enrolled as a pre-kindergarten student. Now, his legacy lives on through the "Field of Books" reading nook in the school library that was dedicated Thursday afternoon.
"He started his first academic years here, at our campus so we immediately said you know what we have to create something for him in his memory we came together as a team and we decided to create Javi's field of books," Olga Lopez, the school principal said.
The school had 22 children read heartfelt messages to Javi's family. While none of the kids knew Javi, they have felt the pain that Aug. 3 brought.
"Our kids know about loss we explained to them what happened in El Paso with the loss of the lives at Walmart," Lopez said.
The reading nook is adorned by his passions, he was an avid soccer player a clear theme at the nook. For faculty and staff the idea going forward with the design was to provide a space for children to read and reflect in peace.
