Students at Lakota Middle School are behaving a little more nicely to one another this week.

An assembly on Monday kicked off a school-wide atmosphere of kindness by telling the story of Rachel Scott as part of the Rachel’s Challenge program. Scott was the first victim in the 1999 mass shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado. She was a devout Christian and lived her life as an example of kindness to others.

After her death, Scott’s family received letters from young people whom Scott had touched throughout her life. One young man wrote a letter saying that Scott intervened when he was being bullied. He said that until her act of kindness, he had been considering suicide.

Rachel’s Challenge is a program being implemented at schools throughout the country to try to quell youth violence, suicide and bullying by promoting kindness and compassion.

The program had an immediate impact for some students at Lakota on Monday.

“It definitely did touch me. I was crying,” said eighth-grader Alivia Robinson. “She’s a great role model, big time. I look up to her.”

Robinson said she was inspired by Scott’s positive attitude. She said that, at times, she comes to school grumpy in the mornings and she’s going to try to be more positive — like Scott.

“She definitely stepped up and always seemed like she was positive no matter what,” Robinson said. “That was a really good assembly. I think our whole school needed that. It brought us together.”

Eighth-grader Kelsey Burrows said the assembly inspired her and a group of friends to approach a lonely girl in the cafeteria on Monday.

“She was eating and she was all alone, so we thought it would be nice to keep her company,” Burrows said. “We invited her to sit at our table tomorrow.”

Justin Rickey, a seventh-grader, said he will be more likely to intervene if he sees someone getting bullied at school.

“I think I’ll go over there and help stick up for them,” he said.

Tina Bomgardner, president of the PTA at Lakota, said parents have been working to implement the program for several years. In addition to the assembly, 50 students were trained to continue spreading the message throughout the year. There was also a program for adult community members at the school on Monday night.

“It kind of just promotes an atmosphere of kindness and eliminating prejudice,” Bomgardner said of Rachel’s Challenge. “It takes a whole community to promote this kind of awareness and atmosphere, just to have it spread.”

Contact Margo Hoffman:

mhoffman@fedwaymirror.com or (253) 925-5565.