The Times West Virginian

Local News

January 13, 2009

County students hear ‘Rachel’s Challenge’

By Katie Wilson

FAIRMONT — The student body at Fairmont Senior High was held spellbound for more than an hour Monday as one man recalled a horrific event: The deaths of his sister Rachel and 12 other students at Columbine High School nearly 10 years ago.

Craig Scott, representative of Rachel’s Challenge, gave three presentations in Marion County Monday. The first was for students at West Fairmont Middle School, the second at FSHS and the third for parents and community members in the evening.

Rachel’s Challenge was created from the life, writings and death of Rachel Joy Scott, the first person shot and killed in the Columbine High School tragedy in 1999. Rachel’s Challenge is a nonprofit organization that seeks to improve the lives of teens through her life.

The group sends guest speakers to schools across the country and the world, talking about Rachel’s life and death and about kindness. Entertainers, politicians, sports celebrities, educators and two presidents of the United States have been impacted by Rachel’s Challenge.

Students at FSHS sat in stunned silence as Rachel’s brother Craig spoke about the Columbine tragedy. The setup was a simple one, with Craig moving about the stage with a microphone while images were projected on the screen behind him. Even with the minimalist setup, keeping the students’ attention wasn’t difficult with the power of the message.

Craig Scott was in the library of Columbine High on April 20, 1999 with his friends. The library was the bloodiest scene, where he watched as two of his friends were shot. Rachel was eating lunch outside the east entrance of the school, and the two gunmen shot her as they entered the building.

Following Rachel’s death, the Scott family began studying her writings, particularly her journals. She always believed she would die young and that she would have a profound impact on the world.

In an essay written just a month before her death, Rachel wrote about kindness and how she believed acts of compassion could start a chain reaction of goodness. At that same time, the teens who would become the Columbine gunmen made a video calling for a chain reaction of violence and hate.

Craig Scott said it was amazing that both were calling for chain reactions of polar opposite things.

“They started a chain reaction,” Scott said. “There were shootings at high schools for a while. But I believe my sister has had the larger impact.”

Rachel’s Challenge has visited high schools all over the country, impacting millions of students. They first came to Marion County in September, with a visit to East Fairmont Junior High.

E-mail Katie Wilson at kwilson@timeswv.com.

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