School credits group’s message for kinder campus
On March 27, Tempe’s Gililland Middle School invited officials from Rachel’s Challenge to make a presentation to the student body.
Everything changed after that. Disciplinary actions dropped drastically in the final quarter of last school year (140 incidents) from the third quarter (214 incidents).
The trend has continued into this school year. There were 130 first-quarter disciplinary incidents, well below the 233 in the opening quarter the previous school year.
Principal Brady Wald and his staff credit the message of Rachel’s Challenge with making a kinder student body. “It is making a world of difference in the climate and the culture of the school,” Wald said.
Rachel’s Challenge is a motivational program inspired by Rachel Joy Scott, the first victim of the 1999 Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colo. She was 17. Rachel had led by example, helping newcomers, special-education students and strangers. Her life’s message, inspired by Anne Frank and Martin Luther King Jr., was to “create a chain reaction of kindness.”
“The students are kinder to each other and teachers,” said Gililland teacher Sherriann Holtey.
Fred Lynch, trainer for Rachel’s Challenge, spoke again to Gililland students on Oct. 30.
The Rachel’s Challenge message was a reminder for the seventh- and eighth-graders and an introduction to the sixth-graders about removing prejudice and looking for the best in others, dreaming big, choosing positive influences, speaking with kindness and showing love to others.
“I don’t like to fight anymore,” said seventh-grader Anthony Montano. “I’m doing bet- ter and get straight As.”
Kameron Ross, an eighthgrader, added, “I noticed a difference in the hallways. People are nice. There are not as many fights.”
Rachel’s Challenge has Gililland students focused on finding acts of kindness and touching people’s lives.
To spread the reach of Rachel’s Challenge, as many as 100 students are chosen for the training group Friends of Rachel. Lynch said that influential students are chosen, including students who may be troubled. The students spearhead school and community-service projects that extend the approach to accomplishing kind acts.
In the evening, the community is invited in. Families learn about Rachel’s Challenge.
“We received a grant from the Fiesta Bowl to sponsor this for 2013,” said the Tempe Diablos’ Greg Stainton, whose group is co-sponsoring Rachel’s Challenge with Gililland. “We support this program because of the impact it is having on kids and families.”