Corpus Christi (KIII News) — 13-year-old Isaiah Starry was remembered Thursday during a special service for the victims in last Friday's tragic Robstown shooting that claimed the lives of five family members.
Isaiah was the youngest victim and a popular student at Calallen Middle School.
"Isaiah was a wonderful kid," Principal Marcos Flores said. "Just happy-go-lucky, very innocent."
"He was a great kid," Counselor Stormi Ross said.
Flores and Ross described Isaiah as being full of energy.
"Everybody knew him. Everybody got along with him," Flores said. "He was happy to be around people. The kids just liked him. He was funny. He was full of life."
To say Isaiah was well-liked is an understatement. He was one of those students that people just admired. Flores shared a story about Isaiah and a recent school trip.
"Last year we went on a Washington D.C. trip with him and his grandmother and he was just so excited about everything," Flores said. "Always. Every monument we went to he was just excited to be there, happy to you know, see what he was seeing. And his grandmother as well. She was there to always support him."
Ross said because it's a known school rule that there is no running in the hallways, Isaiah earned himself a nickname.
"Everybody knew him as the kid who bounced," Ross said. "He was so happy and he couldn't run in the hallways, so he bounced."
The young boy left such an impression among his peers, they decided to create a t-shirt in his honor.
"It's going to have a wildcat on it and underneath the wildcat it will say 'Isaiah 2018', and then in a circle around that it says, 'Our family is a circle of strength and love,'" Ross said.
Isaiah will leave behind a lot of memories among those whose lives he touched. A principal who still sheds tears; a counselor who still knows his smile; and a school that, when the bell rings in a new school year, will be shy one very special student.
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