Rachel Scott's diary shows both the dreams she had when she was alive and a haunting reminder of how she died - a bullet hole. Scott's memory is being kept alive through the organization Rachel's Challenge.

Rachel Scott was killed in the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School.

Tonganoxie ? In Rachel Scott’s diary, the former Columbine High School student wrote this: “I will not be labeled average.”

Next to the quote is a hole from a bullet fired during the 1999 shootings at the suburban Denver school, in which 12 students – including Scott – as well as a teacher were killed. Twenty-three more people were injured during the shooting spree.

Brandie Orozco shared the story of Scott’s diary and the bullet hole during a recent assembly at the Tonganoxie Performing Arts Center in Tonganoxie High School.

Orozco works for Rachel’s Challenge, a foundation established in Scott’s honor. According to the organization’s Web site, rachelschallenge.org, “her acts of kindness and compassion, coupled with the contents of her six diaries, have become the foundation for one of the most life-changing school programs in America – Rachel’s Challenge.”

Orozco said the bullet hole almost was like an exclamation point to Scott’s statement.

Orozco spoke to students in grades seven through 12 at the high school during the day. And at night, an assembly was open for the public to attend.

The program was made possible earlier in the school year when elementary school counselor Lindsey Graf presented information to the school board about anti-bullying programs for the district. The board unanimously approved funding the school assembly and training program created as a result of the Columbine High School tragedy.

Parallels to another time

Rachel’s Challenge consists of five parts:

¢ Look for the best in others: Eliminate prejudice.

¢ Dare to dream: Write goals, keep a journal.

¢ Choose positive influences: Input determines output.

¢ Kind words. Little acts of kindness translate into huge results.

¢ Start a chain reaction.

During the presentation, Orozco spoke about how Anne Frank, who kept a diary of her life during the Holocaust, inspired Scott to keep a daily journal. Orozco said Scott was known to tell friends she thought she would die young but would make an impact on many people.

After her death, Scott’s family found something she had drawn behind a piece of furniture in her room. She had traced around her hands on the wall and inside the hands she wrote: “Rachel Joy Scott will someday touch millions of lives.”

Finally, during the assembly, Orozco showed footage of an interview with a man who told Rachel’s father, Darrell Scott, that he had a dream. In the dream, the eyes of a young girl were crying from the sky to the ground and it made living things grow. The man thought the tears were those of Rachel.

At a later date, while looking through some of Rachel’s belongings Darrell Scott found a picture Rachel had drawn.

It showed two eyes crying down toward the ground. A flower was coming out of the ground where the tears were falling. Orozco said there were 13 tears in the picture – the same number of people killed at Columbine.

When the program was finished, students were invited to sign a banner that read “I Accept Rachel’s Challenge.”

“I thought it was sad,” said Chase Knea, an eighth-grader. “I thought it was a good idea that we’re doing (the program).”

‘Universal message’

Orozco noted that she has gone to schools on the East and West coasts, including inner-city Los Angeles schools with 3,000 students, as well as Midwest communities such as Tonganoxie.

She said students, no matter where they’re from, have been attentive.

“It’s really a universal message,” she said.

During the THS program, Orozco challenged students also to set goals.

She noted that a Harvard University study found that of recent high school graduates who were asked whether they set goals, only 3 percent said they did. When those same students were interviewed again a few years later, the study showed the 3 percent of students who set goals were making more money than the rest of the students combined.

The Tonganoxie students are in the process of forming their own FOR Club, which stands for Friends of Rachel. The club is designed to continue Rachel Scott’s chain reaction of kindness and compassion in schools.