pins and welcome to the edge rachel scott was the first victim in the columbine mass shooting on april twentieth one thousand nine hundred nine rachel was a student i called my high school after her death she left her family six journals filled with her writings on kindness and compassion in these writings she talked about being true to herself and making an impact on the world after her funeral many students came forward and share their stories with the scott family they describe her incredible impact on their lives soon after hearing of rachel's amazing ability to spread kindness her family started the nonprofit organization of rachel's challenge spreading kindness and compassion throughout our school can help to improve the attitudes of students and make peter's township high school a better place rachel challenge is a program dedicated to instilling these values into schools across the country rachel wanted to start a chain reaction of kindness scott once said 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 the program aimed at helping students to do just one act of kindness a day so that they can start a chain reaction of the same students will spread kindness through this reaction incorporating these acts into students lives and starting a chain reaction can impact schools in a major way according to the rachel's challenge website one hundred sixty thousand students skip school per day due to fear of being bullied by their peers these numbers can drastically decrease in students if these acts of bullying are placed with acts of compassion towards classmates this organization has also helped to prevent suicide and has a verdict over one hundred fifty suicides a year according to their website through this initiative it will help students recognize when others are struggling and need someone to talk to rachel scott once wrote i want to reach out to those with special needs because they're often overlooked i want to reach out to those who are new in school because they don't have any friends and i want reach out to those who are picked on or put down by others reaching out to students that seem different can impact these students in a major way even the smallest gesture can help kids to feel included and give them a sense of belonging through this challenge a club is also introduced into the school the club is called the friends of rachel club or the four club some of these students are nominated by teachers to join the club however the rest of the student body was invited to sign up for the club as well the friends of rachel club well help the school to be kind of those who are not treated that way every day and help students having difficulties in school to realize that there is a place for them and there are peers willing to help and be friend them and let them know that they are not alone rachel challenge is not just another initiative being put into place it is a program that can  recreating the culture of our school to feel inclusive to everyone today i have mr christian was not the assistant principal of peter central high school and a sponsor for the four club thank you for joining me today mr lives in it hey pleasure to be here so i want to start at the beginning and i want to ask you how was the district introduced to friends or rachael challenge well the origin of why the district went to the rachel challenge program and  been i don't want to paint a bad picture because the picture is societal this is not a yes township picture but students in schools today are facing greater challenges and needs in regards to both mental health  feeling empathy towards one another reaching out and being kind to one another you can point the finger to numerous sources of this concern you know reasons psychologists are wrestling with as to what is the root cause and there seems to be many as to why as a society we are struggling with mental health concerns and empathy and  not bullying and not taking on and treating one another with kindness and respect and so we have seen this societal wave we have seen it play out here in peter sound ship over the years and we wanted to do something that would help to push back against that tidal wave of of negativity and so we do believe in the concept of rachel's challenge that is really distilled down to her challenge of starting a chain reaction with each personal interaction that you have yeah just like one little thing can yes change how yeah it's going it's not it's not about  grandiose gestures of kindness or you know doing an enormous fundraiser for a charity or things like that those are great and those are wonderful outpourings from someone's heart however it is meant to really emphasize and not diminish the importance of those small every day interactions in fact all of you have now been through the greatest challenge preallocation the part of the presentation if you think back was the stories of individual interactions that rachel had they didn't tell stories of rachel raising money for the homeless or you know fighting for tibetan independence from china yeah i mean it she was someone that reached out to a student with special needs who is being picked on in that moment she was still a student that would say hello to a new kid or move their lunch tray to sit next to someone who was new at school that day small things that made larger ripples in fact the thing that i want people to remember now that we're about a month away from can you believe a month has pas that feels like yesterday when i got about a month away since the assemblies the thing that i want to make sure that we don't get lost in the weeds on is that it is not about the grandiose programs it is about each one of us making individual efforts to expand on that the challenge and this is something that i would call to each student  is it is very easy to get caught up in the negativity of others into feel a sense of powerlessness in saying yes but people are so mean or you know the comments that people are making to me on social media ers so nasty or or you know the no one is supporting me it's very easy that i'm very me focus and that will not accomplish racial challenge the challenge there is as an individual to really say i am going to be the one that makes a difference yes the world is grim and there are grim things happening i can make a change i can start a chain reaction don't wait for someone else to do it don't sit in despair and ponder about how few people are making a chain reaction be the change you know if you don't see change be t you've got it so there are multiple sponsors for rachel challenge club right yes yes yes oh well fact ten how do you choose the sponsors for the club much like the club's selection itself for students the faculty members were volunteer i sent an e mail as i am often doing and i send an email to the faculty and  asked for anyone that was interested in participating in the program to let me know if they wanted to savor the program about thirty teachers responded to that and said yes i'm interested in supporting the program i met with them and then said specifically to that group who among you is interested in assisting the students that volunteer to be part of the friends of rachel club and out of that i have ten folks that said i  have the time in it and you know the passion to to do that so there are a lot of people that want to support it some people were already doing a lot of things another question i had was how are you using the club to incorporate but the emanating from within their passion yeah so you know me i personally am im a very strong believer in students doing things if adults do things for t and it ends up just being somewhat artificial we want the students to be the source and to create because ultimately it's not really about what you do it's that you're operating from your passion where you do something from your passion it will make a difference has to want to do it yeah if someone assigned you to doing something you don't want to do it now you know you know i'm going to use your teacher it's a time when we get together with people that are not in the departments or in the meetings that we typically go to and we each chile together and complain about how hot it is and i did that kind of thing you know yeah and it's competitive which draws me to it that's why i always  win at really anything and so i give it my all and making my chili and then that draws me to the table but then there's to be like twenty chiles around the table people talk and then the money that is donated because when you you know no administrator assigned him to do that no faculty member pressured him into doing it although i'm sure now that it's a thing and he's tired of people pressure him at this point but at the same time it came from his passion and therefore it made a special difference yeah much more than an assignment that he was completing and it has a ripple effect and it's something that even among the teachers in the group that met they came out of the last meeting and said you know we need to do a better job of supporting the initiatives and things that people are already doing out of their passion to make a difference around here to show kindness to people and mr bacile says chili cookoff was was one of those that i went told after meeting i said you're going to get some more helpers this year because people don't want to see you suffer with putting all of that on yourself so yeah and it definitely i think causes people to want to do their own thing to like i say like if mr massa's can do this then i can do something as well and you've got to want to do that right  so i just have one more question before you go on our break how many students do you expect to be in the club like how many are there currently so the day of the assemblies we had over three hundred sixty students signed up to be part of a club that is one quarter of the student population here at the first meeting we had probably about sixty students that showed up the first actual meeting and then at the second meeting we had about thirty students that showed up so naturally there is a whenever you're working with a population of people this is i don't say those numbers to to create disappoint yet the reality is people are busy yeah and then the other reality is that there is an emotional response to the presentation that we're trying to harness and that's a good thing to respond to your emotions in that way however i think people's commitment to it waned as a result of just time and atrophy of interest whereas the thirty that are attending are desperately committed to seeing the ideals move forward yeah which is those are very to typical when you're trying to get an initiative off the ground to have it distilled down like that we want more in it because i want all of you students to have the opportunity to feel like they are able to give back there are a lot of clubs not just the four clubs that are all already making a difference for the called you're you know you have our students for the environment club to do cyber cycling the sad how does that student council does an issue to support culture here and support kindness we have the new  you guys took a survey recently as we're developing the trust crew oh yeah yeah that's good for students that are going to be given capacity in training to assist peers that are struggling with mental health concerns so those are all wonderful things that are going on so just because for club is getting distilled down to the people that really are passionate about that that's naturally going to happen the and that's ok but at the membership is still open so for anyone watching the show if you are like and i really want to be part of that it's not too late my goodness no you can just go and join whenever yes i want to join see mrs settler for the remind account she can get you set up she's the one that's running the communication ok for it you just got to get on the remind account because all of the meetings in schedule stuff is happening and reminded through provide ok that's all the time we have for questions now but we'll be right back with the ad with mr l welcome back to the edge today i'm joined with mr christian last net and we're talking about rachel's challenge ok so my first question for you and it's how do you think that rachel's challenge can improve the attitudes of students all together like just the entire culture of the school rachel's challenge cannot improve the attitudes of individual students individual students can improve their attitudes based on the challenge that was issued to them right so right rachel challenges an empty thing if it is not picked up and personally identified with so that if students are expecting rachel's challenge to have come from the outside of them and to make a change for them they will find themselves disappointed they have to embrace and you've got and it is not about hey i'm going to receive something different now people will be nicer to me people will be kinder to me that is you are going to find yourself disappointed because every one of us is responsible for bracing the challenge and so you have to look at it as what am i going to give because the truth is is that there is psychological research and darrell scott her father who spoke at event for the community after all five buildings got their presentations he spoke of the psychology of kindness and that is something that stuck with me from his presentation is that when you are kind to someone else there are three people affected the first person is the person that is the recipient of your kindness they are both encouraged and challenged when they receive kindness right right think of when someone has done something nice for you it changes your day and you say i need to exaggerate about right you know you walk away with a personal commitment the second person that's affected is the person giving the kindness when you give kindness you get it back because your heart was written to be a giver of kindness i know when i'm like nice to someone it always makes me feel good about myself to got it you got it and that's exactly the case  because when you give kindness it is your heart is encouraged and they say that endorphins are released in your brain as a result of giving kindness just as receiving it and then there's a third person the third person is a bystander that saw that act of kindness in fact some of the greatest revolutions of kindness were started by a witness of kindness people like martin luther king jr constantly cited role models and mentors and examples of kindness and sacrifice to help others throughout his civil rights career you know that was it that he didn't just come up with it he was inspired by teachings of jesus and gandhi and like he cited these people all the time and he was inspired by them so do not miss the third person that is affected when kindness is shown because they say that endorphins are released in your brain when you witness an act of kindness as well and then it challenges someone to also go and do better that's how the chain reaction gets started yet is that i do something kind to you you respond in kind and then someone else sees it and responds in kind as well it has an exponential capability and then i want to ask does rachel's challenge have any personal significance to you like that you're so passionate about it  you guys well the longest any of you have been here is four years i've been here for eight years and so i would say that especially you seniors you you know me the people that have worked with me closely know me  and i when i see rachael challenge what i've read about rachel's challenge i said you know this this is fitting for peter sounds of high school and is also fitting for me and it's something i can easily get behind because i'm a big believer that i can make a difference with small gestures reason why i've always stood out front and rated you guys is because i want you to start with a kind smile and a good morning and a personal hello a small thing but a lot of times that that makes a difference in how you start because interactions between people and emotions have a tendency to be contagious and so if i had a bad interaction with somebody the likelihood of me having a bad interaction with you goes up right right a good interaction with somebody prior the likelihood of me having a good interaction with you goes a so that's of it up i've always believed in another personal connection that i've had to it was when i was still sitting there watching darrell scott speak something that really crushed me was he would close his eyes every time that rachel's casket appeared on the screen i was sitting in the front row at the chapel so i could see that but every time that they would play the multi media videos and then her casket would be on there he would close as he could not see the casket i always when i was watching that presentation at the bible chapel i was like how does he go through this every time knowing that his daughter had passed away i think that would be very hard for someone especially him talking about it all the time so you know people say you've probably heard it where they say well once you have kids you understand i have three zenith that night at the bible chapel watching daryl thinking my goodness how does how does he have the capacity to go on and do this night after night after millionth night right i mean he was leaving us didn't even stay in pittsburgh flew in that morning presented god on an airplane flew to washington d like to present to congress the same type of praise behavior that's crazy again and again and again yeah reliving his daughter's death and murder and the life that she lived and being reminded that he only see her now in the presentations that and then here is the other personal connection i'm the exact same age as rachel really yes that's crazy she and i were seniors in high school  no way you're thirty eight yes i don't know whether that's a compliment or it and so so i the the my personal connection was i in the same age as rachel so i and now i'm a dad and three times over and to sit there and watch him go through his daughter's death it was very very challenging to me to think if this guy can do that because he cares so much about you and you and you and you and everybody else to share this message of hopefulness out of despair my goodness what is my problem you know i need to get out there and do a better job i need to go and i need to be making a difference i need to be kinder you know so i walked away from all of this like yeah we're setting this up for students but i myself personally was deeply impacted and i also think he probably does it because he loved her so much he wanted he knew that she wanted to have an impact on the world so he's spreading her message that way that's why i really love rachel's challenge and another one of my questions what speaking of the assembly at the bible chapel how important do you think it is that the schools and the community come together in this challenge very much a good question  so i don't know if you know of peter's township character counts as an organization it's a community organization that meets monthly at the beginning of each month we meet at various locations throughout the township and it is the one organization where all of the entities of the township come to one table share lunch share ideas share challenges for one another and then encourage each other to continue to act in ways that promote good character right kind  is one of the three main elements of character counts so character counts was the organization through which the additional funding beyond the school districts contribution we fundraised in the community and there were community groups and things that contributed money to get darryl here because bringing daryl in we had to pay for him to fly out we had to pay for his stay with the pay for the event fee we had to pay that money and so we also paid for the t shirts that were given out to all the four club students and the faculty members so there was money that the district contributed and then character counts met them and contributed the rest and so character counts is really trying to drive the races challenge coordinators of the group and we set the meetings and set the agendas and there are many people that come to each of our meetings and are contributing so now there's a big challenge on the community adults your parents and p t s say and police and fire parks and  rec chamber of commerce local churches how are they keeping this flame going how are they pushing this initiative so that's that's something that we're also working on that you may not have seen or or know oh yeah my parents went to see mr scott speak and they were really impacted us while so i think it's having a great impact on the community too undoubtedly another question i had was how do you weigh like a success and a failure within the four club like what is a success and what is a failure within the club like within the challenge i would say failure is is failure failure to do anything so if we fail to give students the pathways through which to operate out of their passion towards demonstrating kindness towards their peers that that i would consider a failure you know feeling anything yeah so i would say success would be a revolution i would say ultimate success a plus a plus success would be a revolution of kindness one where students that fear coming here don't fear anymore  students that are met with rudeness and intolerance would not be met with rudeness and intolerance would be met with appreciation and understanding  success would be one where friendships are restored and increased and conflicts are diminished and resolved those elements are already happening  students reported in the wake of the racial challenge you know one student said an enemy that i've had for three years that i've been battling with on social media and in various other walks of life we apologize and we reconciled reconciliation and forgiveness is the pathway forward you know kindness kind of sparks that flame so that would be success ok well that's all the time we have for questions today thank you so much for joining  today we talked about rachel's challenge with the introduction of this program into the high school the rest of the this and the rest of the district some major changes on the way kind of think in fashion are not just words there acts that can change a person's active starting a chain reaction of kindness can help kids all across the community feel more included and feel happier throughout their day rachael's challenge can aid in preventing bullying and improving the attitudes of students all together being kind to just one person can help you to impact the world so maybe you want to ask yourself do i accept rachel's challenge