Berner Students Get Peer Presentations On Keeping Kind

MASSAPEQUA, NY. — Berner Middle School played host to a pair of presentations on bullying on Nov. 12 and 13, as student council members presented to sixth graders about Rachel’s Challenge. “Rachel’s Challenge” is the nonprofit organization founded by the family of Rachel Joy Scott, the first victim of the 1999 Columbine school shooting. After her death, Rachel’s family came to discover the life of kindness she had lived, and started the nonprofit in hopes of inspiring other kids to live similarly kind lives.

The student council members presented about a Rachel’s Challenge assembly that had taken place in March, in which students heard about the kindness and positivity that Rachel spread in her life. In a series of presentations that spanned two days and coincided with World Kindness Day, the student council presented to more than 500 students at Berner, working with advisors Denise Robertson and Teresa Ferreira to create slide decks to bring the message of Rachel’s Challenge to Berner Middle School.

“It’s an important lesson because students need to learn how such a small, kind
gesture can make such a positive impact on Berner,” Eighth grader and student council treasurer Jake Hillkewicz said, adding that the presentations gave sixth graders meaningful suggestions on how to put kindness into action in their daily lives.

Some of those gestures are already taking place at Berner; students attended a workshop after the March assembly and developed a simple idea: Kindness cards. THe cards were distributed to every student, and the school created a promotional video encouraging kids to put the cards in their school ID badges as a daily reminder of how important it is to be kind. At the November presentations, sixth graders were presented with kindness cards of their own.

District officials said the “five pillars” of Rachel’s Challenge are looking for the best in others, dreaming big, choosing positive influences, speaking with kindness and starting your own chain reaction. According to Ferreira, those principles will be reinforced at Berner throughout the fall and winter, leading up to the next Rachel’s Challenge assembly in March 2026.