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Hazelwood Central High School Takes on Rachel’s Challenge
Encouraged by a series of diaries, an essay, and the spirit and kindness of a young girl, the family of Rachel Joy Scott turned a personal and public tragedy into a program that has impacted schools across the United States and throughout the world.
Rachel’s Challenge is a program that strives to teach high school students, teachers and staff, families and community leaders how to affect positive change in their school environment.
On Friday, Aug. 31, students and staff at Hazelwood Central High School experienced Rachel’s Challenge as one the first in North St. Louis County to feature the program.
As student’s sat in folding chairs in the old large gymnasium, the chatter and bustle came to a silence as speaker Brandie Orozco, a friend of the Scott family, began to share the story of Rachel.
On April 20, 1999, Rachel died in the school shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Co. She was the first student to lose her life that day. Fifteen others died that day too, including a teacher and the two young boys responsible for the attacks.
During the session, the students watched video clips of Rachel and members of her family retell their stories of loss when she died. Her brother, Craig, was also a student Columbine High. He was in the library sitting at a table with two of his friends when the horror began. He survived, his friends did not.
The Scott family was inspired to develop Rachel’s Challenge after finding entries in her diaries and an essay she’d written for a class assignment entitled ‘My Ethics, My Code of Life.’ In it, Rachel asked that people try to find the good in each other and to look beyond appearances and into hearts. The essay ended by asking that her theory of kindness and compassion be tested, and stated, “You just may start a chain reaction.” The essay was dated one month before her death.
The program encompasses challenges for schools in areas such as the power of influence, the importance of goal-setting and keeping a journal, ending prejudice and bullying, and creating a climate of kindness. The goal is to open the minds of students to get them to change their attitudes and to change their school’s atmosphere, essentially starting a chain reaction.
In the end, the reaction to the program was mixed, but obviously emotional for more than a few. Many, mostly girls, were wiping away tears as they talked to teachers after the assembly. Several stayed behind to calm themselves before returning to class.
Samantha Bursac, a senior, said that she got goosebumps from the presentation. Rachel’s life reminded her of “personal experiences” and made her reflect on her own purpose. “I always thought that I had to be rich to be a good person, to give and to help others. I know that I don’t have to have money, that I can have a positive impact in other ways,” said Bursac.
Her close friend, Brook Acoff, also a senior, was moved to tears by the program. “It was extremely sad that people had to die because of hate,” she said. “She was a nice girl who died at a young age and died for no reason.”
Both girls were in elementary school in 1999 and said that they knew something bad had happened, but it didn’t have an impact on them. Now, the tragedy has more meaning and the challenges of the program are significant. (story courtesy of the Hazelwood Communications Dept.)
