EXETER — Abigail Oliver knows what it’s like to be bullied.
Now 16, the Wyoming Area junior said she endured bullying for her entire eighth-grade year and she “just dealt with it,” never reaching out to anybody for help.
“Some students don’t realize what they do and how they affect other students,” Oliver said Thursday.
She also knows there is compassion and goodness in many. Oliver was among more than 1,100 students at the Wyoming Area Secondary Center Thursday asked to take “Rachel’s Challenge,” part of an anti-bullying initiative aimed at creating an atmosphere of kindness and compassion for students.
“Today’s program will shed light on that and show students that their fellow classmates really care about them,” Oliver said.
The nationally recognized anti-bullying, pro-kindness program is named for Rachel Joy Scott, the first victim in the 1999 Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colo.
Her uncle, Larry Scott, spoke to the students, faculty, staff and community on Thursday, telling them an estimated 160,000 students skip school every day in fear of being bullied.
With more than 1,200 schools and businesses reached, the Rachel’s Challenge program is working, Scott said, adding that everywhere he goes, kids want to do all they can to become better people.
What is Rachel’s Challenge?
At heart, it encourages youth to take five steps: Look for the best in others, dream big, choose positive influences, speak with kindness and start your own chain reaction.
According to the program’s website, rachelschallenge.org, its aims are broad: Help schools and businesses become safer by encouraging real culture change that will lead to reductions in bullying and the use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.
“We’ve been told that our program has prevented at least eight school shootings,” Scott said. “Students who attended our presentation have reported what they had heard and arrests were made.”
Wyoming Area Superintendent Janet Serino said three administrators planned the program: Shaun Rohland, assistant principal of discipline; Robert Gallela, director of curriculum; and Jon Pollard, building principal.
Serino said the program is designed to show students the importance of always having a positive attitude and of growing the culture of compassion and sincere concern for each other.
That message seemed to resonate with students who spoke about what they had heard.
Ninth-grader Patrick Brantley, 14, said he read about Rachel before the program and found Larry Scott’s presentation “sincere and moving.”
“We learned that a lot goes on in the minds of students that they don’t express,” Brantley said. “It’s important for students who are having issues to know that they can reach out to their peers for help.”
Brantley said he felt more empowered after hearing Scott’s presentation.
“Mr. Scott emphasized the importance of reaching out,” he said. “We all have to spread kindness and let our fellow students know that there are people who care about them and that they can come to us.”
Scott is hopeful students will decide to continue Rachel’s legacy by helping to get her message to more students and adults. At the conclusion of the Wyoming Area program, students were asked to text their parents and invite them to that evening’s presentation.
As Rachel Scott wrote in her final school essay:
“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. People will never know how far a little kindness can go.”
Senior Dominic DeLuca is looking to spread that message, and hopes Thursday’s program will help students learn how to handle difficult situations.
“The way the world has changed, especially through the internet and social media, people sometimes don’t make good decisions,” said DeLuca, 18, quarterback of the Wyoming Area state championship football team. “The key is to stay positive.”
DeLuca also had heartfelt advice for any students having a tough time.
“If someone is being bullied, I ask that they come see me,” he said. “We will help, so just reach out. We don’t want to see any bullying in our schools.”
