Today my school participated in a Rachel's Challenge presentation. It was pretty moving, especially for the kids. It was nice to see the big macho boys crying. Some of our typical bully types even apologized to students they had picked on over the years when it was over.
Rachel Scott was the first student killed at Columbine High School in Colorado on April 20, 1999. Her short life was dedicated to helping others and being nice. She believed that small acts of kindness and compassion could being a chain reaction of kindness. Her family has taken on the job of bringing her challenge of kindness to students across the country.
http://www.rachelschallenge.com/
There is a presentation tonight for parents and families.
Rachel's brother, Craig, was also at Columbine that day. He heard the shots that killed his sister and a short time later two of his best friends were killed while hiding under a table with him in the library. He is only alive because the sprinklers went off and distracted the killers. He's presenting tonight at one of our other district's middle schools.
If this program helps even just one student at our school, it was worth it.
4 comments:
........wow...
That brought tears to my eyes. Columbine is still talked about all of the time here like it just happened. I love that there is some good coming from it all with this program. I hate to think like this, but have they had anyone react in not such a great way after participating? Like give anyone the idea or push they needed after seeing what an impact those two boys made? I totally hate to look at it that way, but I would be afraid of that...
I was worried about glorifying what the boys did but they handled it very well. I doubt students get a positive message about doing this type of violence from it. -- Even when they mentioned that the boys had watched a violent movie over 200 times in the months leading up to the massacre, they never mentioned the name of the movie. -- They've been doing this program for over 8 years and have had a lot of time to get it right.
we're doing FOR this year again. we had a presentation recently but even tho it was similar to last year's it was different. it made some bullies recognize and stop their behavior that day just like at your school. we saw a dramatic difference in the kids and climate at our school last year. FOR is SO worth the time and effort.
e
Post a Comment