Humphrey Students Help Columbine Victim Rachel Scott's Kindness Live On

Editor's Note: The following is a release from the Valley View School District.

Rachel Joy Scott often talked about creating “a chain reaction of kindness and compassion.”

Just six weeks before the Columbine High School junior was killed while eating lunch on the grass outside her school almost 13 years ago, she wrote those very words in her journal, issuing a challenge to the world.

students heard those words, and more, Monday courtesy of what has become a national effort to spread the words of “Rachel’s Challenge.”

“Look for the best in people,” Rachel’s Challenge presenter Kristi Krings told students. “Don’t go and prejudge anyone.”

Krings issued five challenges to Humphrey students:

• Find prejudice in your heart and eliminate it. “First impressions can be deceiving.”
• Treat people kindly, the way you think you should be treated.
• Find positive influences for your life. “The choices you make today will determine the person you are tomorrow.”
• Speak with kindness, not cruelty. “Let your words be words that heal.”
• Start a “chain reaction of kindness” in your own life.

Humphrey students began their own “chain reaction” prior to the presentation by creating a paper link chain with each student stating on a link what he or she will do from this point on to create kindness and compassion. Students agreeing to Rachel’s Challenge will also sign a large banner that will eventually be hung in the school.

Language arts classes will begin discussing other ways to carry on the “Challenge."