The story and legacy of Rachel Joy Scott, the first person killed in the Columbine High School shooting on April 20, 1999, has touched millions of lives and started “chain reactions of kindness and compassion” in schools across the country.
In two weeks, that pro-kindness, anti-violence legacy and program, called “Rachel’s Challenge,” is coming to Cazenovia.
Scott, a prolific writer, was an advocate of reaching out to social outsiders, showing them encouragement and kindness and bringing them in to the community. Rachel’s Challenge, based on the life and writings of Scott, has touched 22 million people and is the foundation for creating programs that promote a positive climate in K-12 schools, according to the organization. The group’s mission is to make schools safer, more connected places where bullying and violence are replaced with kindness and respect; and where learning and teaching are awakened to their fullest.
“This program is great — it’s emotional, powerful, uplifting — it give people a roadmap for safer, more connective schools,” said Cazenovia High School Principal Eric Knuth. “It’s not an anti-bullying program … This is not here to fix some grave problem; it’s here to put things in place to prevent problems.”
Knuth, who has helped implement Rachel’s Challenge in other school districts during his career, said he finds the program impressive and valuable for three reasons: It gives a positive message of what kids should do to create positive a community, not what they should not do; it has sustainability in that the program creates student clubs that put the Rachel’s Challenge message into action; and it is all a student-driven endeavor.
The program “developed organically” by students in Cazenovia before Knuth even pitched the idea to the kids, he said. A group of students did a “kindness week” at the beginning of the year during which they wrote positive, encouraging messages in chalk on school sidewalks and on post-it notes placed on every single locker in the high school. This is, in fact, exactly the type of activity that Rachel’s Challenge encourages and the clubs that spring out of the program, Friends of Rachel clubs, accomplish, Knuth said.
Two CHS students in particular, Caeli Carroll and Rory Flannery, approached Knuth about becoming involved in Rachel’s Challenge and are the student leaders for the event.
“They’ve definitely helped bring it here,” Knuth said.
Both Carroll and Flannery said they believe Rachel’s Challenge will have an immensely positive impact on the Cazenovia student population and the community at large. Positivity is “contagious” and can have influence through “small and large acts of kindness,” Flannery said. He feels the program will create new and stronger relationships between students, faculty and staff “and create an overall happier and kinder school climate.”
“What impresses me most about the program is that it has a sustainability plan to you can keep everything you learn from the presentation alive in the school,” Carroll said. “I am also impressed at how the message is delivered as pro-kindness as opposed to anti-bullying.”
Carroll said she believes the program will bring a sense of unity and compassion to CHS. “Cazenovia students have gone through some tough times and I think the message of spreading kindness could help heal people as well as provide a solution,” she said. “This program aims to help each individual person be the best they can be while simultaneously working on people having positive interactions with each other.”
Rachel’s Challenge will be presented to Cazenovia High School students on Tuesday, Jan. 31 with three, one-hour sessions — one for middle school students and two for high school students, Knuth said. The sessions will explain Scott’s story and her positive, inclusive philosophy and encourage students “pay it forward” with acts of kindness and compassion, Knuth said. Students will also be given the opportunity to create and join Friends of Rachel clubs.
At 6:30 p.m. that same day, Jan. 31, in the high school auditorium, there will be a community presentation of Rachel’s Challenge as well to explain and expose parents to Scott’s message as well.
“It’s really about bringing a community of people together,” Knuth said.
Knuth sent a letter to district parents informing them of the upcoming event. The letter, plus videos from the Rachel’s Challenge website are posted on the district website at cazenoviacsd.com/rachels-challenge-is-coming-to-cazenovia.
More information about Rachel’s Challenge can be found on the organization’s website at rachelschallenge.org.
