Middle/High School: Grades 5-8 News

LMS accepts Rachel's Challenge

Students in seventh and eighth grades attended a presentation about Rachel Scott, the first student shot and killed at Columbine High School in 1999, and the legacy she left behind in her diaries. Rachel was only 17 when she died, but she had been challenging people for years to help make the world a better place for all.

Our students were asked to consider and accept five of Rachel’s Challenge:
- Treat others the way you want to be treated;
- Dream big and believe in yourself;
- Appreciate everyone and mock no one;
- Use the power of positive gossip;
- Forgive and be forgiven.

Since experiencing the presentation, approximately 50 seventh and eighth-graders have begun actively planning for Rachel’s Challenge activities in our school. They have proposed three ideas as the starting point for their organization:

1. Act of Kindness Chain: Chaired by Gabrielle Edwards, this committee is challenging everyone in the school to a “chain reaction.” Their plan is to build a chain with each link recording a person’s act of kindness that will stretch from the cafeteria to the connecting hall where they hope to meet up with a chain from the high school!

2. Information Presenters: Chaired by Megan Ross, this group of seventh and eighth-graders initiated the involvement of fifth and sixth-graders in Rachel’s Challenge. Upon presenting information to these classes, many students signed up to read the pledge and have accepted Rachel’s Challenge.

3. Rachel’s Challenge Rally: All of the volunteers are planning a rally, scheduled for late-January or early February. Many creative ideas are being generated!

4. Everybody Needs Somebuddy: Chaired by Mariah Brickhouse, they are working on developing a mentoring program, whereby eighth-graders will connect with fifth-graders, eventually expanding this to the sixth and seventh grades as well.

What else has been happening?
- A secret someone has been leaving positive notes around the building to help put smiles on our student’s faces.
- The Chain Committee has plastered the walls with beautiful posters about how to treat others and listing Rachel’s Challenges.
- Mrs. Bossert and the PTA supplied a huge banner that states “I Accept Rachel’s Challenge” which was signed by many seventh and eighth-graders and adults in the building (the fifth and sixth-graders will be offered a similar opportunity).
- A Rachel’s Challenge Pledge was written by Rayna Bryant and is being recited every morning during announcements by student volunteers.

What is Rachel's Challenge?
Darrell Scott established Rachel’s Challenge as a non-profit organization, to perpetuate his daughter’s example and the two-page “Code of Ethics” she wrote a month before her death. Its mission statement is to “motivate, educate and bring positive change to many young people.” The Rachel’s Challenge presentations are given in schools and communities by members of her family and other speakers, using video footage of the Columbine High School massacre and its aftermath, combined with Rachel Scott’s drawings and writings, in a campaign to quell school violence, bullying, and teen suicide.

As of 2009, Rachel’s Challenge has developed a team of 30 speakers addressing young people in schools and colleges worldwide about Rachel’s example. The Rachel’s Challenge program includes establishing Friends of Rachel clubs in schools, following the initial presentation to sustain the campaign’s goals on a long-term
basis. Schools around the country have incorporated Rachel’s challenge into their own clubs bringing the message to their students.
Source: www.rachelschallenge.org

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