WALES — After showing a documentary of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, Sam Downing of Colorado introduced Oak Hill Middle School students to Rachel Scott, the first to die in that shooting.

Her life, and the organization formed to share her message of how treating people with kindness will prompt a chain reaction, illustrates how one person can affect many, Downing said.

Rachel, 17, died as she and a friend were eating lunch outside the school when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot and killed 13 people before taking their own lives.

After she died, her father found her English class essay, “My Ethics, My Codes of Life.” In the essay, Rachel wrote that if one person goes out of their way to show compassion, “it will start a chain reaction of the same. People will never know how far a little kindness can go.”

She filled six diaries with similar messages.

Downing, a presenter with Rachel’s Challenge, gave five challenges to students based on Rachel’s life. He showed videos of people talking about how Rachel had made a difference.

Some were students who bullied because they were angry. Another was a man she didn’t know who was changing a flat tire in the dark during a storm. She stopped and held a flashlight and umbrella over him. Two weeks later, at her funeral, the man vowed to always stop and help someone in need.

Downing’s first challenge to students was to look for the best in others. If they do, it will remove prejudice, he said. Rachel wrote that until you know a person, “not just their type, you have no right to shun them,” Downing said.

The second challenge was to treat others the way you want to be treated. If you do, “your school could be an awesome place,” he said.

Rachel was influenced by Anne Frank and Martin Luther King Jr. Downing’s third challenge was for students to choose positive influences.

“The things you choose to influence you at this point in your life will have a direct impact on the kind of person you’ll become tomorrow,” he said. “Elevate students around you.”

His fourth challenge was to speak words of kindness.

“Words can hurt and words can heal,” Downing said. “Everyone knows what it feels like when someone sends out text messages or posts something about you on Facebook or Twitter that’s negative.”

Everyone also knows how it feels when someone says something kind, he said. “A kind word you speak to someone can make a huge difference. That’s the power of our words.”

Students watched a video of Rachel’s brother, Craig, who said on the last day of her life they argued on the car ride to school.

Angry, he kept switching the station so she couldn’t hear her songs. He slammed the door as he got out. The next time he saw Rachel, she was in a casket.

Craig said he was angry and bitter at himself and the shooters. To heal, he had to forgive.

Downing asked students to close their eyes.

He asked three questions. First, did they ever do something they couldn’t take back? Most raised their hands. Forgive yourself, he said.

Second, have they done something to someone? More hands went up. Ask forgiveness, Downing said.

Third, has someone done something to them that they’re bitter about? Forgive that person, Downing said.

Since 1999, Rachel’s dream of starting a chain reaction of kindness has reached thousands of places. “You can start a chain reaction,” Downing said to student applause.

bwashuk@sunjournal.com

Rachel’s Challenge

1. Look at the best in others.

2. Treat others as you want to be treated.

3. Choose positive influences.

4. Speak words of kindness, not cruelty.

5. Forgive yourself and others.

For more: www.rachelschallenge.org

WALES — Students said they were moved by what they learned Tuesday during two school assemblies to improve school climates. Both were held at Oak Hill High School; one for middle school students, another for high school students.

A community forum was scheduled for Tuesday night.

Kristin Leonard, 14, said she didn’t know who Columbine victim Rachel Scott was or how she died in 1999. But her message “definitely impacted me a lot.” In school she hears a lot of insulting jokes that cut people down. “That can be eliminated,” she said.

Drew Gordon and Joshua Pietrowicz, both sixth-graders, said they see boys pushing and punching at recess. Some are joking, some are not. That can be stopped by letting teachers know there’s a problem, Pietrowicz said.

Marcus Thomas, 14, said it’s “pretty cool how just one girl could make a huge impact.” At school he hears “a lot of people harassing people on their sexual orientation.” He said he could “step in more” and stop it.

To keep the momentum going, a Rachel’s pledge banner signed by students will be hung at both schools.

Rachel’s Challenge training will be offered to 70 high-schoolers and 30 middle-schoolers.

Oak Hill High Principal Patricia Doyle said she hopes the efforts will prompt students to think twice before they say something mean on Facebook. “It’s empowering to do good,” Doyle said.

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