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'Rachel's Challenge' program will visit schools Monday
Word spread throughout Mountain Home Feb. 20 that a gun had been found at West Elementary.
Although the gun was found without any ammunition and was brought to the school by a 10-year-old student with no ill intentions, some parents felt panic and fear until more details were known.
That panic and fear can't compare to the horror that spread through Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, as the town watched helplessly while two students killed 12 fellow students and a teacher before taking their own lives.
On Monday, students at Mountain Home Junior High and the high school will see footage of that day and hear what the school was like before the shootings. A free public presentation will be held at the high school that night beginning at 7 p.m.
Students and the public will hear the effect kindness and compassion can have on others.
The presentation -- called Rachel's Challenge in memory of the Columbine tragedy's first victim, Rachel Scott -- is designed to motivate students to positively change the way they treat others.
Scott was a 17-year-old junior at the time of her death and believed in helping others.
In an essay a month before her death she wrote, "I have this theory if one person goes out of their way to show compassion, then it will start a chain reaction of the same. People will never know how far a little kindness can go."
Students will watch footage of her life and the shootings, then engage in an interactive 45-minute training session on how to positively change the way they treat others.
According to rachelchallenge.com, the first hour creates the "want to" and desire to change and the second part teaches the "how."
The community is invited to attend a similar presentation at 7 p.m. in the high school gym.
Mountain Home School Distirct Superintendent Tim McMurtrey said the event had originally been scheduled at the junior high but was moved to the high school to accommodate more people.
Rachel's Challenge was founded by her father, Dillard Scott.
Kasey Gilliam of Rachel's Challenge, said shortly after Rachel's death, different organizations started asking him to speak. The events grew into what is now a non-profit organization and the country's largest secondary school assembly program, Gilliam said.
There are currently 30 presenters, some of whom were in Columbine High School the day of the shootings, others are family members of victims and the rest are people who were touched by Scott's story and got involved.
"This is a good message to send to schools," McMurtrey said.
McMurtrey said the school district first got the idea to hold Rachel's Challenge when Channel 7 sponsored the presentation in Boise and invited local schools in an effort to bring the program to the local area.
Base Primary principal William McCarrel attended the presentation and told McMurtrey he had to bring the program to Mountain Home.
Since the program is best suited for seventh though 12 grades, it is being held at the junior high on the morning of March 17 and in the afternoon at the high school.
Gilliam said the impact of Rachel's Challenge as been incredible and has prevented at least a dozen suicides and school shootings, based on discussions with students after the presentation.
"We've seen the culture and climate change a lot at schools," Gilliam said. "We've seen the biggest bullies in school apologize to kids they've bullied."
McMurtrey said he would love to encourage parents to attend the public presentation Monday at 7 p.m. at the high school.
Gilliam said Rachel's Challenge puts on the community presentation because parents appreciate being involved in what their children learn at school and are just as impacted as their students.