 |
| Rachel Joy Scott and the picture for Rachel's Challenge |
On September 29, 2011 Craig Scott came to South to talk about Rachel's Challenge. For those who don't know, Rachel Joy Scott was the first person killed during the Columbine shooting at Columbine, Colorado High School on April 20, 1999.
The 2 shooters were 2 boys that were current students of Columbine High School. They were made fun of. They planted bombs in the high school cafeteria a little while before the cafeteria would be filled with high school students eating lunch. They then went outside and waited to watch part of the school blow up. But the bombs failed to go off. In their anger the boys walked through the school shooting students and staff. Rachel Joy Scott chose to go out and eat lunch under a tree with her friend. One of the boys shot her in her leg and her arm about 3 times. Then one of them walked over to her and picked her up by her hair and asked her if she still believed in God. She said "You know I do." and the the boy said "then go be with Him." and shot her in her head. Her younger brother Craig Scott (the person that came to talk to us) was in the library at the time. The library is where the most killings happened.
 |
| Craig Scott in 1999 |
 |
| Craig Scott now |
Craig was under a table with his 2 good friends. One was black and one was white. When the 2 shooters came to the table, they looked at Craig and his 2 friends. The white one they killed just to kill, but the black one they shot because he was black. Before they shot him, they started making racial jokes and then last thing that that boy heard in his life was racial jokes against him. The 2 gunmen actually had a gun to Craigs head but thank goodness the little sprinkler things on the ceiling went off and distracted them. And they never came back to kill him. At this point in time, Craig didn't know that Rachel was already dead. When the 2 boys left the library, Craig heard God's voice. He said simply "Get out of there." He then got out from under the table and said "come on guys, I think they are gone." they all started running to get out. They got out and when they all got behind a police car, the 2 boys again entered the library. Craig believes that God spared his life for a reason. Rachel was always writing in her journal. During the last class period that Rachel would ever go to, they were doing a group assignment. Her partner kept trying to get her to put her journal away and help with the assignment. After class, she went up to her teacher, showed her teacher what she was drawing in her journal during class that day and then the last thing she ever said to that teacher was "someday, I am going to make a difference in this world." This is the picture she was drawing.
Her eyes crying 13 tears onto a rose. There were 13 people killed that day.
Now I am not saying that if people are rude to someone that this WILL happen, but this is a very clear illustration of why we need to be kind to each other. It was so touching when Craig came to our school. He basically had the entire school in tears. There was a different sense of unity in school that day and i believe that that is how it always should be in every school, every day. Unfortunately, it's high school, but that doesn't mean we can't do our part.
Oh, and I encourage you to look up more information about Columbine, Rachel Joy Scott, or Craig Scott. And then do something to tell other people. I decided to write a song inspired by Rachel Joy Scott that hopefully many people will hear and be able to remember her and share her story.
