When 17-year-old Rachel Scott was killed at Columbine High
School in 1999, she left a legacy of kindness and compassion toward her
fellow students and friends that was to become the foundation for a life-changing
school program promoting positive change that has taken hold across the
country.
The program, called “Rachel’s Challenge,” consists of
school assembly programs with student audiences and the community, and
features talks by a member of Rachel’s family and a celebrity spokesperson,
video/audio footage of Rachel’s life, and a training session on strategies
for implementing positive, constructive behaviors. Since September, the
program has traveled to numerous school districts on Long Island, including
Port Washington, Jericho, Rockville Centre and Lynbrook in Nassau County.
On February 2, the Challenge
comes to the Freeport schools, with assemblies during the day at Freeport
High School. Featured speaker will be Shane
Hamman, a former record-setting Olympic weightlifter who has been called “the
strongest man in America” and who, as a close friend of the Scott
family, is the Rachel’s Challenge spokesperson. |
On Friday, February 3, the program moves to
the Dodd Middle School where Dodd social worker Felice Niland has arranged
for morning assemblies that will host Dana Scott, Rachel’s older
sister. In the evening, Dana will speak at the high school at 7 p.m.
at an open meeting with community leaders and residents and Freeport
School District faculty members and parents.
FHS Social Worker Alicia Brenneis, coordinator
of the activity at the high school, told a meeting of the Freeport
High School PTA that “Rachel’s
Challenge is a program that inspires, instructs and enables students,
teachers and administrators to infuse positive attitudes into their school’s
atmosphere.” |
She noted that American Presidents, past and
present, have commended the program as a mechanism to encourage youngsters “to
make a difference in our schools and neighborhoods.”
In an essay called “My Ethics, My Codes of Life,” Rachel
wrote, “I have this theory that if one person can go out of their
way to show compassion then it will start a chain reaction of the same” that
could benefit all of society. |
