Glen Crest Students Experience Rachel's Challenge and Make Plans for Change
Wednesday, April 18, three grade levels of Glen Crest Middle School students, chosen to represent the student body of the middle school and fifth graders, chosen to represent the four elementary schools in Community Consolidated School District 89,
gathered in the school gymnasium and viewed a one hour audio/video presentation titled, “Rachel's Challenge.” Rachel Scott was the first person killed at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Her acts of kindness combined with the contents of her six diaries are the foundation of a life-changing school program.
The audio/video footage was followed by a 90-minute training session involving both adult and student leaders. The session took place immediately after seeing the film.
Wednesday evening at 7:00 P.M., in the Glen Crest gymnasium, District 89 families and educators were invited to an evening presentation of “Rachel's Challenge,” that followed the same agenda as the student session.
Darrell Scott, Rachel's father, founded the program a few months after the Columbine tragedy. More than 1.5 million students annually experience “Rachel's Challenge,” and have the opportunity to accept the challenge modeled after Rachel's life and writings.
Friends of Rachel (FOR) is a school club that stems from the students' experience with the program. FOR organizes students dedicated to making a positive influence. There are 1,000 active FOR clubs in the United States so far. Presenter Kristi Krings from Fort Collins, Colorado led the audience through forming ten discussion groups, provided the time for group discussion and allotted time for reports from each group. Bullying, negative attitude, forgiving classmates who take advantage of each other, and showing appreciation to the people in our school who work hard to make the school day a success for the students were all topics discussed.
Each member of the audience in either the daytime or evening program were given a blue wrist band that had the phrase, “I accept Rachel's Challenge,” written on it. Glen Crest students are members of FOR and will be planning a school objective everyone can take part in and will work to make their campus a better place. For information call 630-469-5220, the Glen Crest office.