Columbine shooting survivor talks to R-X about putting positivity into the schools

Twin Rivers R-X schools invited Columbine shooting survivor Craig Scott to talk to students.

Scott shared his story from the shooting with high school and middle school students on Tuesday.

During the shooting in 1999, Scott was in the library of Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. When the shooters came into the library, he was hiding under one of the tables. A friend on either side of him were killed.

He later found out that his sister, Rachel, was shot right outside of the library.

This story is one that has prompted him to become a public speaker, going into schools and trying to teach students about the power of kindness.

“My goal is to get them to recognize their own self worth and value, and see the value in every other person,” Scott said. “If a person sees their own value, believes in their own value and believes in their potential, it changes everything.”

After sharing his story with the high school and middle school students, Scott met with about 50 student leaders between the two schools. During this meeting with them, he did two brainstorming sessions; one about things they can do to spread positivity in their school and one encouraging them to think about what they like about themselves.

Some of the students’ ideas to take into the school include sharing compliments about each other, lunch periods where they sit with students they don’t know and programs to help new students connect with existing students.

As part of the program, these ideas aren’t staying in the session. The schools are creating Friends of Rachel clubs, which is one of Scott’s missions to the schools he visits.

These clubs will meet on a regular basis to discuss ways to implement the ideas discussed and other students or clubs to bring into the project.

“I hope that it continues to encourage this spread of kindness and inclusion,” counselor Christina Miller said. “I hope it helps create a new leadership team ... We want to increase the number of students involved and continuously improve our climate.”

On Wednesday, Scott went over to Fisk and Qulin Elementary schools to talk to the students there. This time, he didn’t share his experience during the shooting, but mostly discussed Rachel and the positivity she worked to put into the world.

Scott also offers a challenge to the elementary schools he visits called the Chained Links project. The goal of this is for the students to make an effort to perform acts of kindness throughout the school year. Whenever a teacher sees a student going out of their way to help others, a link gets added to the classroom chain. At the end of the year, all the chains are put together and students see if it will wrap around the school.

“They sign their name and write what they did,” Scott said. “It’s just acknowledging when acts of kindness are happening in the school.”