Columbine survivor challenges community to be kind
Nicole Tavenner
Craig Scott, survivor of Columbine shooting, encourages people in Ronan to spread kindness in their everyday lives.
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner/Valley Journal Families and friends embrace each other as part of Rachel’s Challenge.
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Craig Scott shows hand prints drawn by his sister Rachel, with words promising to touch millions of lives.
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
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RONAN – Community members in Ronan put their arms together and swayed as one to the tune of “Lean on Me” as part of a commitment to be more compassionate toward others last week, after hearing a presentation called “Rachel’s Challenge” from a man who lost his sister and friends in the Columbine High School shooting.
Craig Scott, brother of Rachel Joy Scott, had argued earlier that morning with his 17-year-old sister, the same April 20, 1999, when two teenage gunmen went on a shooting spree in one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history.
“I got out of that car and slammed the door shut,” Craig said. “I had no idea that would be last time I spent with her. I went to my classes and then went to the library to study for a test and heard popping outside of the school. I thought somebody was pulling a prank and the seniors had brought some firecrackers.”
Those first shots were the ones that killed his sister, but Craig had no idea anything was wrong until someone ran into the library telling people to hide.
“I couldn’t understand what she was saying,” Craig said. “And then a kid came in and he was shot. He had blood all over himself.”
Students hid themselves under desks and behind shelves as the shots grew closer. Then the shooters entered the library and began killing people.
Two boys were hiding with Craig. One, a black student, was pulled from underneath Craig’s table and taunted because of his race.
“The last thing Isaiah ever heard in his life were racial slurs being made against him,” Craig said. “The last thing he said was ‘I want to see my mom.’ Then they shot Isaiah in the head with a shotgun.”
Craig’s other friend was killed also. Craig managed to grab a bleeding girl and leave with some other students when the gunmen briefly exited the library. Students who stayed behind were shot later, when the gunmen returned.
“I listened as my friends took their last breaths,” Craig said. “And I thought I would lose my life and I bargained with God. And I told God that if you let me out I’ll be better. I was feeling so much fear I felt like my heart would stop beating.”
Since that day, Craig has tried to share the life philosophies of his sister to help hold up his end of the bargain. Rachel was a talented writer for her young years and when her family flipped through tomes of her journals after her death, they found an everlasting reminder of how compassionate and hopeful she was.
The final journal she wrote had her words plastered across the front: “I write not for the sake of glory. Not for the sake of fame. Not for the sake of success. But for the sake of my soul.”
The journal was in her backpack the day she was killed and torn by the gunmen’s bullets. But her family found other haunting words within the pages she had written.
“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,” Rachel wrote. “People will never know how far a little kindness can go.”
The words carried a spooky weight. Around the same time they were written, the Columbine gunmen were making videos about starting a “chain reaction” of hate and destruction.
The Columbine gunmen’s legacy stood stark in comparison to what Rachel left behind. The girl was known for her compassion. The tiny teen once threatened to punch bullies twice her size for picking on an unpopular student. In another instance just a month before her death, she stopped on a lonely roadside to help a man whose car had broken down. The bubbly teen annoyed the man at first, but by the end of the encounter she had him in a positive mood.
Rachel’s family didn’t know about the incident until after her death, when they finally found out why Rachel’s grave had a patch of grass that was thriving. The man she had helped had been bringing two gallons of water there regularly since her death. The man immediately remembered Rachel’s kindness when he saw her face listed on the front page of the newspaper as dead after the shooting.
He made a promise to pay it forward because of Rachel’s influence and later named his daughter after the teen.
Craig encouraged students to make a similar commitment to compassionate behavior. In classroom presentations last week he asked that students choose positive influences, dream big, keep a journal, set goals, look for the best in others, and start a chain reaction of kindness.
“I’d like for you to imagine a room and in this room are all the people that you care about,” Craig said. “I want you to imagine that all these people are on one side of the room and you are on the other, and they are all looking at you and they are smiling. I want you to imagine just for a moment that this is your last time on earth. Ask yourself, how do I treat these people? Am I being kind and am I compassionate? Am I caring and innocent? Am I giving and loving? Or am I taking?”
He encouraged people to let people they care about know it.
“Tell them about how much you appreciate them, care about them, and love them,” Craig said. “I wish so badly that instead of calling my sister names and slamming that car door shut I could say ‘Rachel, you know I love you,’ but I can’t do that.”
High School Principal Kevin Kenelty said Craig’s presentation had already had a profound impact on the school.
“I witnesses an entire middle school hugging each other,” Kenelty said. “If you’ve ever been into a middle school right before lunch time, that’s not a normal reaction. In my high school girls’ bathrooms sticky notes of positives started to appear. I witnessed people who were mean to each other make public apologies. One person has started a reaction and we hope for that to continue.”
Middle School Principal Mark Johnston said he hoped the program would educate students’ hearts.
“We are teaching them that you can make a difference,” Johnston said.
