“What would happen if for one hour the students in our schools stopped and reflected on the effects their words and actions have on their classmates?”

This is the question that Rachel’s Challenge is asking students at thousands of schools all over America and will pose to the third through 12th grade students at the Fort Stockton Independent School District on Nov. 9-10.

Parents and Community members will also have an opportunity to experience the program at 7 p.m. on Wednesday night, Nov. 10, at the Fort Stockton High School Auditorium.

So, what is “Rachel’s Challenge?” and who was Rachel Joy Scott whom the program is named in memory of.

Rachel Joy Scott was the first person killed at Columbine High School. Just minutes later, her brother Craig was shot at and just escaped death in the Columbine High School Library. He survived the shooting physically unscarred that day but witnessed the murder of his friend Isaiah Shoals standing next to him as the shooters continued their rampage through the school.

Both Rachel and Craig’s stories have been featured on Date line NBC, FOX, CNN, Oprah, Bill O’Reilly, Larry King, Hannity, and numerous other television shows. Three bestselling books have been written about Rachel and her challenge— “Rachel’s Tears”, “Chain Reaction”, and “Rachel Smiles”.

Rachel Joy Scott’s funeral, which took place in the days after the Columbine shooting, was at the time, the most watched live event in the history of CNN. But she is best known for both her final words and her challenge to our nation’s youth to start a “Chain Reaction of compassion and understanding that would sweep across all of our nation’s schools”.

She was the first of two students killed at Columbine after being asked “Are you a Christian?” and answering “yes” (classmate Cassie Bernall being the other). A total of 12 students and one teacher were killed by the two shooters who later also killed themselves. Rachel was 17.

Rachel’s last words might make some think that “Rachel’s Challenge” is a religious one, but it is not. It is a call to our nation’s youth to stand-up for what’s right, to act out of compassion and understanding to improve the lives of those around us, to start a “compassionate revolution.” To stop violence and bullying in our schools by making people stop and think about how their words and actions affect others.

She believed that if each person, by reaching out to others in compassion and kindness, a powerful chain reaction of goodness would be started that could change the world one person at a time. As she wrote, “people will never know how far a little kindness can go”.

“Rachel’s Challenge” started as a classroom assignment for a fifth period junior language arts teacher at Columbine High School. Students were to lay out their personal philosophies of life in an essay or video presentation. Rachel Joy Scott explained in her video that she wanted to be the start of a “chain reaction of compassion” that could sweep the nation, improving the lives of everyone. She explained in her own way, that by acting to improve the lives of other people with random acts of kindness and compassion and then those people each doing random acts of compassion for others soon a “chain reaction of compassion” could sweep across the nation and its schools.

The speakers of “Rachel’s Challenge” are dedicated to seeing that Rachel’s chain reaction goes further and touches more people’s lives than that of the young men that killed her only a few short weeks after the assignments were submitted.

“Rachel’s Challenge” has been honored by Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump for their work.

FSISD presenter will be Cody Hodges, the former quarterback of Texas Tech. Cody graduated from Texas Tech, he was drafted by the NFL’s Tennessee Titans and now speaks regularly for Rachel’s Challenge.