One month before she became the first student killed in the shootings at Columbine High School, Rachel Joy Scott wrote an essay for a class titled, "My Ethics, My Codes of Life."
In the essay, she challenged whoever read it to initiate a "chain reaction" of kindness and compassion, according to her father, Darrell Scott, in a speech to members of UB community at the Center for the Arts last Thursday night.
After her death, Scott read the essay and turned it into a book titled, "Chain Reaction: A Call to Compassionate Revolution".
The book is part of an anti-violence program he initiated with the intention of replacing unfair stigma, alienation of the handicapped and violence with lessons of honesty, kindness and benevolence.
"Rachel brought a lot of joy to our family, a lot of joy to the lives she has touched," said Scott.
During the month Rachel wrote her essay, her father said, Eric Harris - who, along with Dylan Klebold, killed 12 Columbine students and one teacher before committing suicide - filmed himself calling for a different type of chain reaction.
"A year after I read what Rachel had written, I listened to Eric Harris on videotape," Scott said. "In March of 1999, the same month that Rachel wrote that essay, on camera, he says 'We need to get a chain reaction.' He is talking about violence and I was stunned that both (Harris and Rachel) used the same term."
According to Scott, the program Rachel inspired has been adopted by 400 schools throughout the United States and was endorsed this past year by President George W. Bush.
"Her chain reaction has gone far beyond Eric's - much deeper, much longer and will continue to have rippling effects, " Scott said.
Since her death, Scott has traveled around the world, speaking to high school and college students about school violence. He said Rachel's writings and drawings have had an impact on millions of people.
"Rachel has touched the lives of people like Elton John . . . even people behind prison bars, like David Berkowitz, who is actually reaching out to handicapped people in his prison as a result of some of the things that she wrote," Scott said.
As he showed the audience photographs of Rachel from her birth to the last years before she died, he said, "She wanted two things from life. She wanted to be an actress and a missionary. In a way, she became both."
Scott said he was able to cope with his loss through faith in God.
"I was asked by Dateline, 'How can someone who experienced this tragedy have faith in God?'" he said. "My friend Norman, about in his 70s, said something to me that helped on April 20. He said to me, 'Darrell, if you develop a single eye for faith, you will see the God's end-work.' God helped me see through this tragedy and not look at it."
Scott said that in the minutes before Rachel died, Harris and Klebold asked her, "Do you believe in God?" to which she replied, "Yes."
In a video displayed to the Main Stage audience, Rachel's friends said she always knew she would die at an early age.
"We kind of brushed it off," said Sarah Bay, one of Rachel's friends. "We didn't want to talk about death, and she said, 'It's not a big deal, I am just not going to do the things you are planning to do.'"
"She was the wrong person to go after," said Brooks Brown, a friend of Klebold and Harris. "One thing I love about Rachel is she is what I call a real Christian. She believed she was right and that was it. She was what other Christians intended to be. If there is God, then he has sent an angel that changed my life."
Scott told the audience that his daughter helped everyone - from the handicapped and those who did not have faith in God, to total strangers who needed help with a flat tire.
Scott recounted an encounter he once had with a weight lifter who had "big, beefy hands."
"These are the strongest hands that ever lived in America," the man told Scott. "But the hands of your daughter are somewhat stronger than mine and will touch the lives of more people than I ever will."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
