NASHUA – He wasn’t yet born when two high school students shot and killed 12 classmates and one teacher at Columbine High School in 1999, but that didn’t stop Daelon Rich from being moved when he heard the story of the first student killed that day: Rachel Scott.
“I think it was just devastating that she died,” he said Monday.
Rich, a sixth-grader at Elm Street Middle School, is one of nearly 150 students who, after participating in a schoolwide assembly to raise awareness about bullying and share the story of Scott’s life, decided to join a club at the school meant to put an end to bullying.
The Friends of Rachel club is part of a national initiative, called Rachel’s Challenge, created by Scott’s parents after her death.
The program, based on Scott’s journals and her life, teaches students that kindness can be a chain reaction, and encourages them to spread kindness and understanding to help stop bullying in their own schools.
The program was originally designed for high school students, but has since been adapted for elementary and middle schools.
Retired guidance counselor and longtime community activist Susan Haas worked with Elm Street guidance staff and teachers to bring the program to the city school.
Haas said she was tired of seeing bullying and a lack of respect among students at Elm Street and other schools – from pushing and shoving in the hallways to name-calling – and wanted to give students a hand in changing the climate of their school.
“That’s the whole point,” Haas said.![]()
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