The Peters Township School
District is proud to bring the Rachel’s Challenge program to our students,
staff and community. Rachel’s Challenge
is a non-profit organization that seeks to make schools safer, more connected
places where bullying and violence are replaced with kindness and respect. On Wednesday, September 19th, McMurray students
and staff will participate in our Rachel’s Challenge launch presentation.
As you may be aware, Rachel
Joy Scott was the first person killed at Columbine High School on April 20,
1999. Rachel was known by students and teachers as a student that was always
kind and compassionate towards everyone. Following her death, students and
staff reached out to her parents and media to share their stories of how
Rachel’s kindness positively impacted their life. From these stories, a
national organization was created to spread acts of kindness and caring in
schools. Below is a link to the Rachel’s Challenge website for you to learn
more about this program: http://rachelschallenge.org/
Our
hope is that the Rachel’s Challenge launch motivates students to Start a Chain Reaction of
spreading acts of kindness and compassion. For our 4th grade students, the presentation focuses on the
challenge to reach out to others with deliberate acts of kindness. The assembly
is a fun, energetic, and interactive event that mixes music, video and
activities to tell her story. Students will learn about a young girl named
Rachel; however they will not hear or see footage related to the
Columbine tragedy or her death.
Student in 5th and 6th grade will have the option
to attend a more detailed, but still age-appropriate introduction to the
program. Rachel’s story will be told from the perspective of her brother, who
was a middle school student at the time. The
presentation contains video/audio footage of Rachel’s life and the Columbine
tragedy. While the video/audio footage might be emotional, it is not graphic
and was previously viewed on the national news.
Parents of 5th and 6th graders must complete
the attached permission slip for their child to take part in this program. Any
student who does not return a signed permission slip will attend the 4th
grade presentation which will occur earlier on the same day. Permission slips
must be signed and returned to your
child’s homeroom teacher no later than Monday,
September 17th.
Later that same evening (Sept. 19) at 6 p.m.,
parents are also invited to attend a special evening presentation at Peters
Township High School to learn more about this program and specifically what it
will mean to your elementary child. Please note that our middle and high school
students will receive a more in depth look at Rachel’s life and the impact made
by her words following her tragic death. The evening event is designed for
adults as it provides this additional level of detail regarding Rachel’s life,
death and transforming message.
Peters
Township Character Counts is also sponsoring the Rachel’s Challenge community launch
at 6:30 pm on September 25th when we will welcome Rachel’s father, Darrell Scott, to our community.
To accommodate the large crowd
anticipated that evening, the event will take place at The Bible Chapel at 300
Gallery Drive in McMurray.
We hope you can attend this
important event for our community.