OMG, LOL and GTG are all commonly sent texts. However, just one of those could end a life. Texting and driving is the cause of 1.6 million car crashes every year and a local cheerleader happened to be one of them.

Sixth grader Emma Lourdes Shaffer, known as Tita by her teammates, was a member of Champion Cheer Allstars. Her team began the Text Free For Tita campaign after both her and her mother were hit by someone texting and driving. The crash occurred April 9, 2016 and ended in four deaths including Tita, her mother, the other driver and their 3 year old daughter.

“She was a teammate on my cheer team who literally was the most positive and most energetic and loving little girl that I have ever met,” said TCHS Cheerleader Lindsey Hernandez.

text-free-for-tita

Her and her fellow cheerleaders have been using the accident as a way to promote safe driving using the hashtag #TextFreeForTita.

The girls hope to make students aware of the dangers of texting and driving so that what happened to Tita will not happen to anyone else.