It was the first warm day in April and Rachel decided she would enjoy her lunch while she soaked up a little sunshine on the school lawn. It was a good idea that went so wrong.
Rachel Joy Scott would be the first victim when two heavily armed teenagers walked towards Colombine, Colorado High School on April 20, 1999.
But it turned out Rachel had already written down another idea, a theory that if just one person would go out of their way to show compassion, it would start a chain reaction. And this one went so right.
Inside the Columbine High School library, Craig Scott heard those first shots. Like everyone else, Craig thought it must be some kind of prank. Must be firecrackers going off, he told himself. Those were the shots that killed his sister. The Scott family came within an instant of losing two children that day because 10 minutes after the first shots were fired, the pair of gunmen stepped into the library where they would kill 10 students and wound a dozen more. Craig Scott was in the library with two of his close friends, Matthew Kechter and Isaiah Shoels. Shoels, an African American, drew the ire of the deranged duo moments before they took his life and then killed Kechter.
Recalling the moment on film Craig says, "The last thing Isaiah heard were racial slurs. The last thing he said was he wanted to see his mother."
In the end, 12 students and one teacher lay dead. Then the gunmen took their own lives, ending the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history. The aftermath led to a reexamination of possible causes. Was it brutal bullying, gone unchecked, that eventually fueled the rage? Was it a climate of violence the two gunmen were immersed in?
Months after the Columbine tragedy, Rachel Scott's father found an essay she had written, entitled, "My Ethics, My Codes of Life." As Darrell Scott's eyes slowly took in line by line, the kind and generous daughter he had raised took form again; not as the dark-haired poet and budding journalist that had a funny way of tilting her head to the side when she discussed a difficult concept, but as a movement that could change the way we look at each other.
"Compassion is the greatest form of love humans have to offer," Rachel had written in the third paragraph of the essay. "I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion, then it will start a chain reaction of the same. People will never know how far a little kindness can go."
The 17-year old closed the essay with seven words that proved to be prophetic: "You just may start a chain reaction."
Thirteen million people have now heard Rachel's story and Bonham Independent School District welcomed Scott family representative Cody Hodges to town on Monday, September 14, to issue Rachel's Challenge. As her family studied the six journals Rachel had written and talked with the insightful teenager's friends, the ideals that made this young lady so special that even one of the gunmen’s friends noted "she was the wrong person to go after" began to condense into a very simple challenge that we all have to choose to accept or walk away from every day that we are given.
First, eliminate prejudice by seeing the very best in others. Initial impressions can be misleading. Keep looking, keep trying to find something good and decent in everyone around you; sooner or later you will find something beautiful you were looking for. If you are looking for less, that’s what you will end up with.
Second, dare to dream. Set goals, but, maybe even more important, write them down in journals. Those goals will be your map in this short and precious life. The better you understand your map, the less wrong turns you will make. Look at those goals every day and ask yourself if you are getting closer to realizing the dreams you dared put down on paper.
Third, choose your influences carefully. Understand that eventually input will determine output. This concept may be even more powerful than it is simple. Remember every word. Choose your influences carefully because input will determine output.
Fourth, never underestimate the power of kind words. Sometimes the smallest gesture of kindness can have dramatic results. Sometimes you see the results, sometimes you don't. Just never forget that your unwavering compassion and kindness affects those around you. Maybe in some small way, sometimes in a huge way, those people can then have the same impact on others that cross their path.
Number five should be self-explanatory. You have just started a chain reaction.
Bonham ISD has accepted Rachel's Challenge. A group will be forming at Bonham High School and another one will take shape in junior high.
Maybe these groups can start a chain reaction. Maybe we reach critical mass and there can be no turning back. Maybe that thought would have made Rachel Scott tilt her head for a second and then grin.
For more information, please visit www.rachelschallenge.com
To learn more about this new program at Bonham ISD, please contact Mary Jane Neal at 903-583-5526 x 1221 or mary.neal@bonhamisd.org.
