Spread the message: Be Kind

Sep. 1—At Davis Park Elementary, children readily embraced the message of Neil McIntyre, who used his upbeat, hip-hop musical skills to make a special request.

A speaker with Rachel's Challenge, he asked them to treat each other with kindness.

Rachel's Challenge is a program that aims to improve school culture and prevent school violence, bullying and self harm.

"You can say something nice to somebody. You can do something nice to help your friend or help your teacher or help your mom or dad," said McIntyre, also known as Mr. Kneel, at the assembly. "You can accept and include others ... Go out of your way to be friendly to someone who really needs a friend."

He asked them to accept Rachel's Challenge — to look for the best in others; dream big; choose positive influences; speak with kindness; and start their own chain reaction.

It's really not hard, he said.

"Do you think we could start a chain reaction? Say, oh yeah." And the young children in grades 3-5 responded loudly, "Oh yeah."

"Every time you do one of these things, you can help start a chain reaction. You can help me, you can help Rachel, make the longest chain in the world."

Spreading the message: Be kind

This past week and next week, Rachel's Challenge programs are taking place in all VCSC schools, with different age-appropriate sessions for elementary, middle school and high school.

Three evening community programs open to the public also took place.

Rachel's Challenge is a nonprofit organization based on the life and writings of Rachel Joy Scott, the first victim of the Columbine school shooting in 1999.

The presentations look at Rachel's writings and how she lived her short life with kindness and compassion "and how she wanted others to create a chain reaction and do the same," said Megan Kirk, VCSC Project Aware coordinator.

In the schools, "The message and conversation challenges students to do a number of things in order to help us reduce bullying, school discipline, school violence and also to prevent suicide," Kirk said.

The school programs look at how people treat eachother and the importance of speaking kind words to one another, she said. "It's a pretty impactful message that our students are hearing."

Rachel's Challenge speakers will visit each school. At the elementary level, the message is more upbeat and does not make a connection to the Columbine school shooting.

The high school program does include information about Columbine as well as Rachel's impact on those around her and the legacy she has left behind.

In addition, at the secondary level, each school has selected a group of students to do followup Friends of Rachel training "so they can take action and create this chain reaction of kindness" through followup initiatives, Kirk said.

The district hopes Rachel's Challenge will help reduce disciplinary problems and teach, or re-teach, students how to get along.

"Coming out of COVID, we noticed the tone of interactions among people whether student to student, staff to student, just in general ... just was very different," Kirk said. "Almost the level of tolerance among people was very different."

Through Rachel's Challenge, "We really wanted to find a message to kind of refocus" and bring back the idea of being kind to one another, helping one another, including others and choosing positive influences, Kirk said.

In a related effort, the district also has worked to make students aware of the importance of reporting bullying and provided online tools to do so.

Substantiated bullying reports have increased in the school district, from 143 in 2021-22 to 179 last year, which district officials attribute in part to greater awareness as well as online and anonymous reporting platforms that students can access on their Chromebooks.

Also, "I think bullying incidents have gone up," said Tom Balitewicz, VCSC assistant superintendent for student services. "That's part of the reason we want a program like this" and to be proactive instead of just reactive.

According to Kirk, "We hope through these presentations at all levels, students will start to be kinder, to themselves as well as others."

She added, "We're really trying to focus on changing the culture and climate within our schools."

'More necessary than ever'

McIntyre, the Davis Park Elementary presenter, said of Rachel's Challenge, "One thing I love about Rachel's Challenge, we're not anti-bullying. We're more pro compassion and kindness."

A lot of times it's the kid showing bullying behavior "who actually needs more kindness, needs someone to reach out to them," he said.

While it's great to go to high schools to help make positive changes, "It's so much better to strike when they are younger and get kids on board with this idea," he said.

Among the ideas he shares is, "Hey it doesn't just make other people feel good to be kind; it makes you feel good, too."

McIntyre said Rachel Scott has prompted him to change the way he lives his life. "The great thing about working for this company is talking about kindness and compassion every day and inspiring others," he said.

Much of what is known about Rachel is based on diaries and journals her family found and read after her death.

She also wrote a paper in an English class in which she challenged readers to start a chain reaction of kindness.

Rachel drew inspiration from the Diary of Anne Frank and it's believed she got her idea about a chain reaction from a Martin Luther King quote:

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."

Her belief was that the only way to break a chain reaction of evil "is by starting a chain reaction for good and kindness and compassion," McIntyre said.

He is from Colorado and attended the University of Colorado when the mass shooting happened at Columbine.

He knew people whose siblings were killed. "I knew people that lost their lives that day," he said.

Maybe everybody doesn't jump on board Rachel's Challenge, "but even if we could just get a handful of kids to start living their lives in a way where they're thinking about other people, showing empathy and compassion, that's such a huge touchpoint."

He also believes it's important to know the past "so we're not doomed to repeat it."

"We live in such a divisive world right now, I think this program more necessary than ever," McIntyre said.

Among those attending Tuesday's community presentation at Woodrow Wilson Middle School was Ashley Coleman, whose daughter attends the school.

"I'm the generation of Columbine. I was in high school when that happened," she said afterward. "I just wanted to see more and experience the background of Rachel."

Coleman sees a need for the Rachel's Challenge program in schools and hopes that part of her daughter's takeaway from the program is that "just the little things can make an impact."

Sue Loughlin can be reached at 812-231-4235 or at sue.loughlin@tribstar.com Follow Sue on Twitter @TribStarSue