A Thibodaux native is one of 10 people killed in a school shooting Friday in Texas.
Cynthia Tisdale graduated from Broadmoor High School in Baton Rouge but still has relatives in Thibodaux where she is originally from.
On Friday morning, 17-year-old student Dimitrios Pagourtzis opened fire on students and faculty at Santa Fe High School, armed with a shotgun and a pistol. Tisdale was a substitute teacher at the school.
“She was a loving person,” Tisdale’s niece Lindsay Olinde said. “She had a deep love for family. If anyone needed her she was always right there for anyone.”
Tisdale recently came to visit Olinde and her family, who still live in Thibodaux, and they toured Oak Alley Plantation, Olinde said.
“She started substitute teaching because she loved to help children,” her son Recie Tisdale told The Washington Post. “She didn’t have to do it. She did it because she loved it.”
The morning of the shooting she left a note for her husband William. It said, “Had to go meet teacher. I love you. Hope you feel better today. Love Mom.”
Tisdale’s brother-in-law John Tisdale posted a photo of the now framed note on Facebook Saturday.
According to several news reports, Cynthia Tisdale has been married to her husband for almost 40 years and has three children and eight grandchildren.
A posting on Cynthia Tisdale’s Facebook page says, “I love my grandchildren very much. They are Kayla, Bailey, Reese, Saylor, Abi, Ali, & Fynn. I hope they will remember that always. I love and pray for all my children that they will be happy and prosperous and that they look for good in people for their happiness. Goodness is how you interpret it.”
Cynthia Tisdale’s niece Leia Olinde expressed her shock in a Facebook post Friday.
“I have no words to describe the way I’m feeling now. She was another mother to me. Someone I could talk to about anything and go to for everything,” she said. “The amount of love I will always have for this woman is endless.”
The two guns used in the shooting belong to Pagourtzis’ father, according to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, the Washington Post reported.
Police said they also found explosive devices inside the school and at locations off campus.
Republican Texas Rep. Michael McCaul said late Friday that Pagourtzis wore a trench coat despite the sweltering temperatures earlier that day “to hide the shotgun and 0.38-caliber underneath” during the attack, the Associated Press reported.
Eight of the 10 victims were students. Two were teachers, including Tisdale.
Pagourtzis was arrested Friday on murder and assault charges.
